Contact
by megamatt09
Summary: A series of disappearances of troubled youths across two cities result in a team up between Supergirl and Nightwing to track down the parties or parties responsible. Nightwing/Supergirl.
1. Chapter 1

**So before we get going, I should note that this following story was written mostly between Season Two and Three of Supergirl and set an undetermined number of years in the future. I just haven't had the opportunity to post it until now. Therefore, there may be bits that clash with Season Three, so consider it an AU. Now with that out of the way, onto our feature presentation.**

* * *

 **Chapter One:**

* * *

"I really hope you learned your lesson about trying to rob a jewelry store with an alien cannon. Because, seriously, that's overkill."

The grumbling thugs down on the ground follow the progress of the retreating Supergirl with contempt in their eyes. National City's beloved heroine flies off into the distance to leave the Major Crimes Unit to deal with this goon squad.

' _Seriously, use an alien drill which you barely understand. And one that uses a faulty power source. The fact the stupid thing hums even when it's turned off should be a dead giveaway. And destroying the same jewels you're trying to steal with the cannon. Boy, we've got some real winners tonight.'_

Tonight ends up pretty much like any other night. Any time thugs get foiled by their own incompetence makes it a nice night for Supergirl. Perhaps in some ways, she's improving with each day she's a heroine and she's been at this for several years. Some close calls, the usual amount of heartache and intrigue, which went along with the job, but the Girl of Steel finds herself getting more comfortable in her own skin as Supergirl.

As Kara Danvers on the other hand, well there's still that mandatory amount of adorable awkwardness that plagued her life ever since those teenage years. Balancing a career, a life, and Supergirl combine to make a few headaches for Kara. She manages, just better.

And as a wise man once said, with great power, there must also come great responsibility. Or maybe it was something Kara once read in a comic book years ago. The lesson fits her life oddly well enough for it to apply it. And as always, there are more responsibilities for being a symbol and a role model than just busting up the bad guys.

Friday night, every week, almost without fail, for the past eight months, Kara makes a visit to a place and a cause which has become very near and dear to her heart.

' _Not late, but not early. Right on time where I need to be._

A tall building with glass doors comes into Kara's vision. A large green sign which reads "The Safeway" appears on the building. A trio of youths stands on the outside, enjoying the nice night. They all see Supergirl up and one of them smiles and waves at her, the gesture they return.

Every Friday Night, Kara visits the National City Safeway like clockwork to check in to see how things were going. The home for troubled children and teens, from broken homes, who have had a hard lot in life. Victims of abuse, runaways, drug addicts who fight their addiction to get a second chance, and those who wish to be on the right side of the law.

Every time Kara stops at the Safeway, she reminds herself how lucky she is. To be brought taken in by a good family like the Danvers, after her cousin found the pod after it injected from the Phantom Zone. She could have been found, used, and exploited by someone else. And unfortunately, many of these children were exploited and abused before being taken in by the safe way.

"I heard you kicked some serious ass tonight, Supergirl!" one of the young boys cheered.

"Well, I just do what I can," Supergirl says. She can't help, but smile. "Where's Ms. Lang?"

One of the other boys piped up. "She's down the hallway, Miss Supergirl….she's been on the phone all day!"

Kara frowns at the statement. It seems odd, and she wants to get to the bottom of this. The boy who spoke turns away from her to reveal most of his right ear is missing. It sickens Kara to recall the story about this one, how his drunken mother disabled him with a beer bottle. He was very lucky to be alive.

That being said, Kara moves quickly to the office and stops at the door. She gently knocks on the door.

"Come in!"

Kara pushes the door open and steps into the office. A very attractive redhead woman dressing in formal attire sits in front of the desk. Her long hair clips back and a pair of very professional looking glasses tops off her outfit. Kara sees a pair of filing cabinets, some paperwork in disarray, and behind her desk, a larger portrait of Superman hanging above the woman's head.

"Kara…it's good…I forgot you were coming tonight."

"You've been busy," Kara said. "So, what's up, Lana?"

An old friend of Kara's cousin, dating back to his days in Smallville, peers at the Girl of Steel and just motions for her to sit down. Lana Lang runs the Safeway. Boys and girls come from places like National City and Star City to Metropolis and all the way from Gotham City and Bludhaven. Youth from all sorts of places who just demand a second chance.

"You want some coffee?" Lana asks. "Because I really could use some coffee. I actually could use something a bit stronger than coffee…but I have to lead a good example here...and that portrait reminds me of how Clark would stare disapprovingly at me if I drank my day away."

Kara cracks a smile and can see the troubled thoughts straight away.

"So, you remember Angela Beaumont?" Lana asks.

"How could I forget?" Kara asks.

Overly religious parents who were not too supportive of Angie's coming out. Their attitudes towards her preferences drove her to a drug addiction and a drinking addiction. She came to the Safeway about a year ago to get her life back together and after a couple of hiccups was on the fast track to heading to college.

"She didn't return after leaving with some friends a few nights ago," Lana answers.

"You think she's a runner?" Kara asks. "Or do you think something happened?"

"Something happened," Lana tells Kara in a somber voice. "How else do you explain her friends returning like they've been traumatized for life?"

No logical explanation for that, if Angie just ran off and did not return, then it would not cause them to be so traumatized. Kara puts on her investigative reporter hat and asks Lana the uncomfortable question that pops into her mind.

"You don't think her friends might have done something to her?" Kara questions Lana. She realizes that question could have been asked with a bit more tact. "I don't…I don't mean to be rude or anything, it's just that…."

"I've considered they could have," Lana agrees with reassurance that the younger woman was not speaking something that she had not already thought about. "These children are troubled…but I have to believe in them until there's damning evidence that they've done something too wrong to overlook…and I know they haven't. But they're hiding something, even if it's not something that they haven't done."

Lana sips the coffee to try and give herself time to collect her thoughts.

"Angie's eighteen, so she's able to go as she pleases, and the NPPD is not taking this as seriously. Even though….I'm worried something happened…her friends are keeping their mouths shut."

"Do you think they might talk to Supergirl?"

Lana drains the cup of coffee and considers Kara's question. "You know something, it's worth a shot. We don't really have anything to lose."

She guides Lana towards a recreation room. A trio of three teenagers, two girls, and a boy, watch the television. A blank expression comes to their face. They all jump up. One of the girls leans back and whimpers in terror. Another of the girls looks defiant and straight into Supergirl's eyes.

"You're not going to arrest us because we didn't do anything wrong," the girl tells her.

"I know you didn't do anything wrong," Kara says. "And it's fine if you're scared, but Angie's life is at risk."

The thumping of their heartbeats indicates they're terrified beyond all belief for some reason. Supergirl remains calm under pressure, hoping that a gentle tone will get them to spill something.

"She screamed," the boy whispers in a small voice. "And…there was something…a smell coming from the bathroom after she went in there."

"What kind of smell?" Supergirl prods.

She speaks in a calm, patient, and considerate manner because she can tell how terrified these children are.

"B-burning rubber," the boy stammers and he staggers back against the wall. "Please don't make me leave here….we were all scared…I don't want to go back…not to my uncle! PLEASE! Please. Please."

Each "please" gets fainter into a more fearful whisper. The trio of teenagers resembles little more than scared rabbits cornered by a hunter than actual kids. Kara feels bad for having to question them and making them relieve some kind of terrible ordeal. It had to be done though, but it did not make it makes her all that comfortable.

"No one's meaning you leave," Lana gently says. "But if you have any information, it could save Angie's life. And I'd be grateful if you told me….and Supergirl."

"Angie said she swore someone was following her," the quiet girl says. "I thought…well you know how she is after she came here, how she's bounced a couple times. We didn't take her seriously, you know…maybe we should have, you know, listened to her."

Kara knows their telling the truth. Their heartbeats down about right and there's no deception. They are fearful of the same person who took Angie coming back to take them.

"I'll find her," Kara tells Lana.

This was one situation where Kara Danvers and her job as a journalist would be more able to sniff out any leads than Supergirl ever would.

* * *

' _Okay, I've found that there are four or five more reported abductions. And those are among the ones that are reported so how many more are unreported. And there's an eyewitness on this one. Someone's snatching up girls between the ages of fifteen and eighteen for some reason.'_

Kara checks the official reports coming in. Most of the police departments write it off, much like with Angie's, as another troubled teen runaway. The abduction in Gotham City paints a different picture and how much the GCPD are taking it very seriously. Despite Commissioner Gordon's report that they have not had any leads.

' _When you're the crime capital of America, I guess you aren't going to write things off that easily.'_

The doors of the DEO pop open to allow Kara entrance. The reports they are runaways flash over Kara's mind.

' _I'm not convinced there's something shiftier going on than a few teenager girls being nabbed. There's going to be something else. There has to be something that I'm missing. Or rather, something someone's not telling. Angie says she saw someone. They wrote it off as paranoia. But just because you've been paranoid in the past doesn't mean that there's not someone out to get her.'_

Kara steps over and runs into her sister. Alex resembles someone who just walks through the motions. And one look at her sister shows she has a completely rough night.

' _She's worked as late and hard as I have. And she doesn't get recharged as fast easier. I wonder what's up.'_

"You look exhausted," Kara says in a concerned voice. "I think you should get some rest."

"Rest…yeah right, that's funny," Alex says with her arms crossing over each other. She leans back and uses the wall as a brace. "Sorry…Kara…it's just been a rough night."

"How rough?" Kara asks.

"Oh, three trucks, all of them containing alien weapons, having been brought I," Alex explains. "Mannheim's refusing to cooperate with us. I think he gets off on making us sweat. I don't think he's quite fully realized that he's not dealing with your average government agency. He keeps refusing to speak to us further without an attorney."

"He does have rights," Kara offers.

It was a very Superman statement for her to say and Alex responds with a very evident sigh.

"Legally, yes" Alex answers. "We can hold him as a suspected terrorist for a certain amount of time, but eventually…there's problems. Especially when Mannheim's not exactly high end enough."

"He's merely the big fish we have to use to bait the larger fish."

The loud and booming voice of Hank Henshaw comes over. Well, in public, but under that skin rests J'onn J'onzz, a Green Martian, who runs the DEO.

"And you're talking about Da…." Kara remarks before J'onn holds up a hand to stop her from speaking any further around the rookie operatives who are not privy to such information.

"At this point, we don't know," J'onn states. "When we have the truck, we'll know what we're dealing with and whether Mannheim's involved with them or he's just gotten his hands on the leftover weapons from the last time they caused trouble on Earth."

Kara agrees it makes sense. Bruno Mannheim oozes slime, and the man he works for, Morgan Edge, is as scummy as they come.

' _Media Edge is CatCo's number one rival here on the West Coast, so it makes sense,'_ Kara muses. _'And boy, have I learned my lesson about mentioning Edge around Cat. Three hours later, thankfully she finally lost steam. Then again, anyone would be bitter about nearly getting popped off by gangsters working for Edge.'_

She shakes her heads of all of those thoughts.

"So, what are you up to?" Alex asks.

"I've been…looking into something," Kara replies. "There's a missing girl from the Safeway in National City. There's…something going on there. It's not the only abduction….I was wondering if the DEO be onto something."

"It's tragic if something happened," J'onn states in an empathic voice. "But, I'm afraid there's nothing pointing to any kind of involvement that would mandate the DEO being involved."

"We…we were kind of helping we'd have your help on the entire missing truck of alien weapons," Alex states in a very somber voice.

Kara just smiles at her sister. "And I was hoping that you guys would have my back on this abduction thing…but I guess it's something that I'm going to have to handle alone."

Alex cringes at Kara's words. She's certain Kara does not mean to guilt trip her about not being able to help with this. However, the way Kara says it, makes her feel horrible.

"I know, I know," Kara replies. "Big picture…and I'm sure the DEO can handle it perfectly without me. I'm following up a couple of leads and maybe I'll get the lowlife who did it."

"I wish you the best of luck," J'onn tells her. "And…if there's something more to this, then contact us immediately."

Kara reads his words as if there's a reason for the DEO get involved, then get them involved. Otherwise, she's on her own, which suits Kara just about as well.

"Let me know if you really need my help," Kara tells them. "And I'll be there….but right now, this is more important for me."

"You sweat the little things," J'onn says. "It's not a criticism…but….."

"The little things add up to be a big problem later," Kara replies. "So, you know how to get in touch with me, and I know how to get in touch with you, and we'll meet up later."

Kara leaves the DEO, a fair bit disappointed in some ways. She flies to back to the scene of where Angie's abducted, hoping that perhaps there's something that she could pick up there.

* * *

"Bad time?"

Kara hovers and waits for the law enforcement to leave the area. She feels they could get in their way. She holds the phone to her ear when waiting for them to leave.

"Yes," Lena Luthor's voice cuts in over the phone. "I…I know why you called as well. Angela's abduction really has stirred up a hornet's nest. They are writing her off…she's been in and out of rehab at least three times before she got it together. And she finally found sanctuary. I think there was a lot of promise in her once she pulled herself together."

"Yeah, I know," Kara agrees. "The board's not giving you….."

"It would be unwise to talk about them right now. It would merely be bad for my blood pressure now."

"That bad?" Kara asks.

"Yeah, they think the Safeway's a bad idea," Lena comments. "Even if I'm just funding it from afar and letting Lana Lang run it. And she does an admirable job in making sure they all feel at ease."

"She does pretty well," Kara tells her.

"And the media's just making an already bad matter worse," Lena informs Kara. "We're getting the blame for the girl going missing in the first place."

"That doesn't seem right," Kara responds. "You can't micromanage every aspect."

"Yeah, try telling that to the board," Lena replies. "Not all of them are bad. A lot of them are pretty good at their job. Present company included."

Kara smiles and switches the phone to get a better look out.

"Some just want to cause drama and controversy. I'm pretty sure reporters are supposed to report the news and not make it."

"Yes," Kara answers to her. "If you're upset I'll call back later."

"No, I'm glad to hear a familiar voice," Lena offers in a very calm and tranquil voice. "And…..I don't need to remind you that the Expo is tomorrow, and you have a pass."

"Yeah, I'm representing CatCo. And I'll be there."

"Well, you're more dependable than a lot of people in my life," Lena tells her. "I hope….I hope everything goes right and she's found. I really am…because…everyone deserves a second chance to make the most out of their life. No matter where they've come from."

"Yeah, I know," Kara states to her. "I'll see you in the morning."

"I'm going to have to skip out on breakfast," Lena tells her. "I know that I'll be in a board meeting first thing in the morning and that's going to make me late enough as is."

"Oh, right," Kara answers. "Well…good luck."

Kara wishes for good luck tonight. Every second counts and Kara hopes to find something which will point to where Angie ends up.

' _I wish I knew what the guy following her looks like. And I have better descriptions of the man who did get an eyewitness account. The only thing I know is that he's short and his face is covered. Not really that good of a description to go off on.'_

She moves in to check the back first before going down in the front. Kara pushes a crystal visor over her eyes to pick up something the police may have missed, even if their investigation lacks something in her mind.

* * *

Many consider Bludhaven to be a more corrupt and dirtier version of Gotham City. Those people who set up shop here often go here to escape the crowded Criminal underworld of Gotham and the Arkham crowd. They are a less colorful class of criminals. The Arkham crowd monopolizes most of Gotham City leaving very little room for the average thug to spread his wings and actually make an honest living. Unless you worked for one of those colorful men, and that was a risk some thugs decide not to take.

A man sporting a look of a fat man who lost a lot of weight in a very short time steps over. He dresses in a wife top and a pair of pajama pants hanging over his body. He stops across from the edge of the mirror and spends a couple of seconds trying to determine what to do.

He opens up the cabinet and pulls out a can of dog food. He eyes the expiration date.

"Best eaten before March 2011? Ah, what do I care? I'm not a dog."

Jefferson Blanco fumbles with the can opener to get the dog food can open. He pours it on the plate and walks over to sit down. Not the brightest star in the sky, but at least he's still alive.

A thump from above interrupts his meal. Blanco's eyebrows raise up and the lights flicker for a second. He's not surprised.

' _Barely make enough to pay the power bill,'_ Blanco thinks. _'Had to sell my car for gas money last week. And this place is crawling with rats….but still beats working for the Joker.'_

A figure comes out from the shadows. Blanco sucks in his breath and steps back. He pulls a rusty butcher's knife off of the cabinet.

"Stay back!"

The butcher knife handle breaks apart from the slightest exertion of it and crumples to the ground. Blanco staggers back just in time to come face to face with a figure dressed in black, with blue stripes down the sides, and a blue symbol which represents a dragon etched on the side. The top of his face contains a domino mask and his hair parts back.

' _At least it's not Batman. Not that Nightwing's much better.'_

"Blanco, you've fallen pretty hard," Nightwing comments shaking his head.

"Yeah, because of your boss and the rest of the lunatics he created," Blanco grunts. "One guy starts dressing up like a bat, the entire city goes nuts. I remember back in the day how it wasn't like that."

Nightwing grabs Blanco's arm to prevent him from leaving, not he had anywhere to go.

"You've been out in the docks a lot," Nightwing tells him. "You've seen something out there, haven't you?"

"Kid, I see a lot of things by the docks. Lots of hookers, pimps, pedophiles, drug-dealers, you name it, I've seen it…but what….."

Nightwing holds up his hand to show Blanco a picture of a girl about seventeen or eighteen years old with sandy brown hair.

"Yeah, I didn't see her," Blanco hastily says.

"Are you sure?"

Nightwing grabs Blanco on the underside of his thumb and applies pressure. Blanco's eyes tear up from the pain this one simple joint manipulation does.

"Yeah, I swear….I didn't see her get nabbed by some sleazy looking guy last night…least I think it was a guy…short looking fuck has his face all covered up. And I'm not sure…but she might have gone with him willingly….she was reluctant at first, until he touched her. And then she went along with him. It's crazy."

Blanco's thumb comes undone from Nightwing's grip and he comes to the floor. He winches and looks up to see Nightwing gone.

"Yeah, you're welcome, pal!"

He speaks to nothing other than a blowing curtain and an open window. Blanco pulls back the curtain, bullet holes and all, and fumbles with locking the window up.

* * *

' _And most nights, Bludhaven makes Gotham look like National City.'_

Nightwing prepares for the next step of this investigation. Lying underneath the mask, Dick Grayson, the first Robin, and the current Nightwing, considers the best course of action to take next. Contacting Oracle to compare notes would be the most logical thing for him to do. Only someone else beats him to the much.

"Master Dick, do you hear me?" Alfred asks over the headset.

"Yeah, Alfred, good to hear your voice again," Nightwing comments. "So, what can I do you on this fine evening?"

"Well, for me, nothing at the moment," Alfred tells him. "But, for Master Bruce…there's plenty you can do. You recall the favor you said you owe him from a few months back."

Nightwing lets out the breath he's been holding in.

"Oh, yeah I do," Dick answers with a momentary sigh. "And why do I think I'm going to regret being put in a position where I owe him a favor?"

"Something's…come up for Master Bruce, and he will not be making the Expo in National City," Alfred answers. "He would be grateful if you attend in his place."

"But, I really can't tell you what's going on in Wayne Enterprises," Dick protests on the other end.

"Mr. Lucius Fox will be there and will do all of the heavy lifting," Alfred answers.

"Yeah, I guess that's fine," Dick replies. "You know, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I do wonder what kind of mess Bruce has gotten himself into this time."

"He was vague as you would expect."

Nightwing's shock and astonishment registers at less than zero and the call is terminated quickly. He holds up his wrist gauntlet to see Oracle already sent him information regarding the Safeway and also how a reporter named Kara Danvers was putting out feelers for information about a reported runaway, who may be a kidnapping victim.

' _Hmm, the plot thickens,'_ Dick muses. _'I guess these things happen for a reason. If the next phase of this investigation points to National City, it's just as well that I'm heading there. I've hit a stone wall here anyway.'_

Into the shadows goes Nightwing so Dick Grayson could make the trip to National City. And potentially conveniently bump into a certain reporter to see what she's found out about this entire situation.

* * *

 **Thanks to everyone for the favorites, follows, reviews, views, and kudos, and I will see you next Wednesday for the next chapter.**

* * *

 **To Be Continued on April 4** **th** **, 2018.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

* * *

The scene of the crime brings a few questions to Kara which she hopes to answer when looking around. The police decide to pack up shop for the night which is when Supergirl slips in.

"I think they were lying. She might have just ran off when they weren't looking. I've seen the report on this girl before. She isn't exactly the most stable in the world."

"Well, we have to follow up on the lead. Lena Luthor's pressuring us into doing so."

"Yeah, yeah, I know she is. I'm guessing the blowback from her is making her an extra large…."

"Watch it!"

The officer almost steps into a hole on the ground as his rant on Lena Luthor would have to wait to conclude another time. Kara's nose crinkles up. They exit the scene of the crime, get into the cop car, and leave. Kara invests some time to listening to anyone there.

No one is there, and the lock is no problem for Kara. She is able to pick it quite easily and have it locked up. The first glance around lines up pretty nicely with the overall police report as far as the evidence goes or rather the lack of evidence goes.

' _There's nothing here. It's almost like Angie fell off of the face of the Earth by some mysterious force attacking her. I don't really know what to say about it other than….'_

Kara pauses for a second and collects her thoughts. She looks around the bathroom for anything. Other than the sights, the sounds, the smells of a bathroom, there's absolutely nothing here of any note.

' _Come on, there has to be something. There has to be some kind of explanation. Unless she really did run off…and maybe they believe she was kidnapped.'_

The thought brushes out of the back of Kara's head. There were too many cases like for this to be anything other than an abduction. Kara persists in moving through. She searches the ground and then stops suddenly. She redoubles the search as the light glints off of an item in the ground.

The crack in the ground contains a piece of plastic on the ground. It bends at an odd angle and is barely the size of a penny. It's very hard for someone to miss unless they dig really deeply. Kara bends down and picks it up. The plastic warms underneath her fingertip. It's a very weird feeling for a material like this.

' _It's a small clue….and it's a start.'_

Kara notices a mirror slightly off of the edges. Fingernail marks are behind the mirror. It shows a struggle for Kara. Kara shuts her eyes and tries to piece together a logical chain of events.

' _So, this person follows Angie into the bathroom. There's a struggle and scream. Maybe she knocks into some stuff, maybe tries to do something to alert someone. She grabs onto the wall.'_

No blood on the ground which indicates a violent struggle. Then again, Kara suspects there would be nothing like that on the ground. Kara bends at the knees and keeps looking over the ground for something, anything which points out any kind of foul play.

The alarm on her phone jolts Kara out of her detective work. The phone slips into her hand. Kara cups it in hand and reads the message she sent to it.

' _Okay, in two hours I've got to be at the Expo.'_

Kara figures another scan of the floor would not go wrong. She checks the sink, the toilets, and every inch of the public restroom. It's not a very sanitary place to begin with, but there was nothing out of the ordinary which points to anything.

Other than the small piece of plastic and a few very subtle scratches in the wall, no evidence points to an abduction. And given the police's stubborn persistence of writing Angie as a runaway, they did not notice what Kara notices. She frowns and is careful not to drop the piece of plastic or to apply pressure on it to make it crumble.

' _You are the key to everything. Aren't you?'_

She hopes to find out how in due time.

* * *

Some of the top minds in the world arrive at the National City Business Expo for Entrepreneurs, as sponsored by CatCo. Kara shows her press pass at the gate and the guard checks the list.

"Ah, Ms. Luthor made certain that you were to be shown in immediately."

The reporter offers a smile. "Thank you and it's an honor to be here."

There were a lot of people here, some familiar to Kara, and others were not that familiar. Everyone around her seizes the opportunity to get well known and more famous. She approaches the top of the stage with a small smile popping over her face.

"Yes, it's getting worse," Lena tells one of her aides. "The three girls are abducted from National City, and…something's happening. I smell a rat somewhere."

"And that bumps up the reported disappearances to six girls," Lena's aide confirms.

"The key word is reported and confirmed."

Lena turns her attention to Kara who walks over to her. The two women greet each other, with Lena offering a professional handshake. It would be unwise to encourage the Internet to post gossip and innuendo about the true state of her relationship with Kara and why the owner of one of the most prominent companies in the world maintains a friendship with a reporter.

' _Then again, the Internet really doesn't need any encouragement. Simply two people sharing the same airspace is enough to get the people thinking they're in a relationship.'_

"How are you doing?" Kara asks. Lena just frowns. "It's a bad question, isn't it?"

"I haven't slept all night," Lena tells her. "I'm trying to get them to take this more seriously. Whoever is behind this, they're playing a very crafty game. Most of the boys and girls they snatch, they've been in and out of trouble with the law several times, and they don't have any family members to care."

"If you and Lana weren't so persistent, they might not be investigating as much as they were."

"I…appreciate the work that the department does," Lena comments in a very calculating manner. "But, unfortunately for them, they are human. They are responsible for some of their own biases and failings."

A sigh comes from Lena. Kara hears more in this sign than most would be. She holds it together despite the situation because as they always say, the show must go on.

"GCPD is taking this very seriously," Lena answers. "And I think you know there are other people in Gotham City who are taking this extremely seriously."

Kara nods in understanding. She knows who precisely Lena eludes to. Conflict rears its ugly head about how exactly Kara feels about that person involving himself in this investigation. Then again, Gotham and National City were on two separate coasts, so perhaps he may not make the connection.

' _Oh, he will,'_ Kara thinks with a shake of her head.

"Yeah, I feel you," Lena says, potentially misinterpreting the source of Kara's head shake. "And there's a lot of problems here. And that's not just the tip of the iceberg…but….I have to be professional and I have to run things today and I have to play nice with the press….."

And speaking of the press, one of them makes her way into the area. An attractive redhead woman with a professional dress and business attire appears in front of Lena and Kara.

"Ms. Luthor, do you think I can have a word with you for a moment?"

"Well, you've shown up and gotten pass the security," Lena replies. "Such persistence does allow you a moment of my time Ms…."

"Vale, Vicki Vale….you may have heard of my work."

Kara did hear of Vicki Vale's work. Cat went on a tirade about how Vicki was the worst of trash journalism, which was not really fair. Given where Cat started in her career, Kara feels she should have more respect for how Vicki manages to claw her way up in Gotham City journalism. Where journalists end up covering the stories one day and end up in the obituary section the next day.

"Ah, yes, Ms. Vale," Lena answers. "There are a few people from Gotham City who will be in attendence….including Bruce Wayne, if I'm not mistaken. Although, he does not seem to have shown up just yet."

Vicki just shakes her head. The last person she wants to hear about right now is Bruce Wayne. Needless to say, the two of them have their share of problems in the past.

"I want to ask you a question, and it's about the LuthorCorp Safeway….."

"It's just simply the Safeway, Ms. Vale," Lena corrects her.

"But, you do sponsor it, don't you?"

"I help where I can to give some of the troubled youth of National City a second chance," Lena informs the reporter. "And yes, although Ms. Lana Lang runs the day to day operation. I only get involved when necessary, and…"

"Is it true that Lana Lang was involved with your brother before his incarceration?" Vicki asks before it slips out.

"I'm not privy to Lex's love life," Lena says in a smooth voice, with a hint of warning dancing around her words. "But, I will say that Lana was hired purely on her qualifications and not because of some past relationship she has been in. Given the unfound accusations people have thrown your way, I would think you would appreciate why you should not slander a woman's character, wouldn't you, Ms. Vale?"

Vicki stammers. "Sorry….I didn't mean to…anyway….I want to know if you know if there's any connection between the abductions here in National City and at the Safeway, and the ones in Gotham City and Bludhaven."

"Well, I'm no detective, so I can't tell you for certain," Lena answers. "If they are, they're operating from coast to coast and that means this is far bigger than we thought."

"So, GCPD is taking this very seriously then?" Kara asks. Vicki gives her a look. "I'm Kara Danvers…reporter for CatCo..."

"Well, if you're a reporter and you're already investigating this, then you should know that yes, they are. And James Gordon wouldn't take this less than seriously, given what happened to his daughter a few years back. That was tragic."

Kara does not know how to respond to that fact. Vicki puts a hand on Kara's shoulder.

"You know, you really might want to get out from Cat's shadow if you really want to be a good reporter. She'll be the first to tell you that she was a decent reporter, although she was mostly stuck being second fiddle to Lois Lane. It wasn't until she broke free that Cat became the woman she is today. And I see…well I see you might have some potential, from what I've heard about your work and what I've read."

"Wait, you've read my work?" Kara asks, astonished and horrified that such a famous reporter actually took the time to read her work.

"It's a bit rough around the edges," Vicki answers. "But, you're passionate with what you do and that's great….just know that you'll struggle unless you become your own person."

"I like where I am right now," Kara answers.

"Well, you're good enough to make it on your own," Vicki answers. "Between you and me, spending eighteen hours in a plane with Cat Grant is more than enough for me, never mind working with her. And I spent most of that time preventing her and Lane from killing each other."

Kara's intrigue piques, and Vicki just smiles. Judging by the look in Vicki's face, Kara figures it's a story which takes time to do proper justice.

"Years ago, many years ago," Vicki answers. "And I think the two of them are more professional in their rivalry these days…but….I've got to be running….I don't think security appreciates me giving them the slip to talk to you. Good luck, Ms. Danvers, and it was nice talking to you Ms. Luthor."

Now, two women stand only for themselves with company as Vicki disappears into the people showing up at the Expo.

"She's pretty forward," Kara summarizes.

"She was born and raised in Gotham City. Of course she is. And….well it's refreshing to see someone get straight to the point. You can learn a lot from her."

"Maybe," Kara agrees.

She slips by to do some actual reporting. Also, some people move forward to talk to Lena. Kara tries not to listen in no matter how heightened her curiosity was.

* * *

A limo pulls up and Dick Grayson steps out. He moves to face Lucius Fox who gives him a greeting and a smile. The distance closes between the two of them before Lucius grabs Dick's hand and squeezes it with a strong handshake.

"Safe trip?"

"About as well as could be expected," Dick replies. He looks around to make sure no one in particular is listening to them. "So, do you have any idea what Bruce is up to?"

Lucius answers with a very dry chuckle. "Well, I don't have the slightest idea. At least any more than I can do. I'm certain if it's anything that's a problem Alfred would have sounded more worry than he really is."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Just let me handle the talking…which is what the plan was to begin with when Mr. Wayne was about ready to make the trip?"

"I think I can handle it," Dick tells him. "After all, it's just a few reporters. How bad could it be?"

A nervous chuckle comes from Lucius before he pats the younger man on the shoulder.

"Those were the famous words of much older and much wiser men, Mr. Grayson. Unfortunately, they were famous last words."

Dick shakes his head. Pretty sure he could handle it to be perfectly honest.

"We're just a minor part of this expo to begin with," Lucius informs him. "Ms. Luthor and her family's checkered past is part of this just as much, and…I do feel for her."

"No kidding.

For years, Dick remembers people asking about his past as being the child who saw his parents fall before his very eyes. He deals with it after a long time. He crosses the area and a couple of people are hovering around the Wayne Industries table. A couple of gentlemen and a lady cross the area and move towards Lucius and Dick.

"Where is Mr. Wayne?" one of them asks.

"Ah, he's away on an urgent matter," Dick answers.

"Is everything alright?" one of the businessmen asks Dick.

"It's fine," Dick answers them. "He'll be overseas for a while, but I'm sure that Mr. Fox will answer everything."

Lucius steps in front of Dick and deals with the small group. Dick shakes his head. It was a good thing Bruce's reputation helps him in some twisted way. They do not ask too many questions. Dick blends in with the crowd of all of the people around.

A figure almost runs into Dick's shoulder. The attractive woman steps back and almost drops her notes on the ground. She jumps high into the air with a solid "eep" before almost stagger. Dick reaches out on instinct and prevents her from landing on the ground.

"I'm so sorry….I didn't…I wasn't really watching where I was going!"

Dick holds up a hand and pulls away from her. The glasses slide down the bridge of her nose. Dick points to them and the reporter pushes them back up.

"I've knocked down a couple of reporters before," Dick answers. "But, I swear, this time it wasn't intentional."

"I just hear people saying that Bruce Wayne is not here," the girl tells him. "And I'm trying to figure out why. Maybe something bad happened?"

"Search me," Dick answers while giving her enough room to talk. "It turns out I'm only here because Bruce wants someone to stand in for him and look pretty while Lucius does all of the heavy lifting. So in other words, business as usual. But, whatever works?"

The girl answers with a nod.

"My name is Richard Grayson, but most of everyone calls me Dick. And that's not because I'm a jerk. Well most of the time anyway."

The reporter breaks out into a smile. She manages to keep a straight face.

"My name's Kara Danvers."

"Ah, I read one of your stories last year," Dick comments. "Good job in reporting on that alien slave ring. Especially given there were a lot of people behind it which…well they would make you disappear if they had the chance."

"You'd know all about that being from Gotham City," Kara replies.

"What are you trying to imply, Ms. Danvers?"

Kara almost kicks herself for putting her foot in her mouth. Dick cracks into a smile.

"Are you sure you don't need a drink of water?" Dick asks her. "You look like you're flustered."

"I'm not flustered," Kara protests for a second. "Okay, maybe I'm flustered a little bit. It's just being here overwhelms me a little bit."

"Well, try and be more whelmed than overwhelmed," Dick answers with her. She raises an eyebrow at him. "Sorry, inside joke….seriously, I don't take offense of all of the Gotham jokes. I've heard them all before. And I spend most of my time in Bludhaven. And that makes Gotham look like National City."

So, Kara hears and she holds out the notes. It was half written and she spent the better part of an hour talking to some of the business owners. Some of them dodge her questions, some are more opened, it's a real mix of them.

"If you want to know anything about what's been going on at Wayne Industries, you should talk to Lucius Fox. He knows more about Wayne Industries than Mr. Wayne himself."

"Right," Kara tells him. "I'll do that. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Grayson."

"Oh, now you're making me feel old," Dick tells her. "I think we're about the same age, aren't we?"

"Well, it's a pleasure meeting you," Kara tells him. "I'll talk to Mr. Fox and…."

"I've got to stand by the table and do Bruce's job," Dick says. "Maybe I'll talk to you again sometime."

Kara pulls her attention away from him and Dick moves behind. He almost feels a pair of eyes checking him out for a second. It's a sixth sense developed from years and years in Gotham City. Dick clears his throat, almost nonchalantly, before walking off.

' _Hmm, I wonder,'_ Dick muses.

He did wonder if he would run into National City's resident hero. And perhaps Dick Grayson is closer to meeting her than he previously thought.

* * *

Dick Grayson enters the National City Safeway and runs into one Lana Lang.

"Ms. Lang?" Dick asks.

"Mr. Grayson," she confirms when giving him the once over. "I'm surprised to see you here of all people. I was under the impression that I was meeting with Bruce Wayne."

Dick responds to her inquiry with a sheepish smile. "He's sidetracked about as much as he usually is. I'm pretty sure I can handle passing you the check to his quarterly donation to the Safeway."

He hands out the check for Lana to take. She notices the number of zeroes on the check and whistles.

"You do realize that we are funded in part by L-Corp, and we aren't having money problems," Lana answers.

"I know, but Bruce has his causes," Dick answers. "And you know he has a soft spot for helping troubled children."

Lana confirms the statement with a nod. The two of them walk over into the office for Lana to move the check into the safe in the office. The number of zeroes floor her, the donations are much larger than usual, and Lana wonders if there's some other reason.

"I heard about Angela Beaumont."

The redhead stiffens when approaching the safe. She pulls back a hand from the safe.

"Oh, well you've heard and….."

"I have a friend in the GCPD who tells me that they're investigating similar abductions. And I've heard of a disappearance in Bludhaven. A trouble youth named Emily Preston. She's been in and out of juvie at least a half a dozen times since she was eleven and she's really a mess. But trying to get her life back together."

"So, the GCPD classifies them as abductions?" Lana asks. "Sorry, that's what I heard from Lena Luthor."

"Yes, that's right," Dick tells her. "I'm more surprised the National City Police Department is not taking this more seriously, especially with six reported disappearances."

"There's a new Captain," Lana tells him. "And there's been an increase of juvenile crimes, even after Bruno Mannheim was put away."

She brushes a hair away from her eyes. Lana takes a drink of water.

"I don't know what else I can do. It's not like I can slap tracers on those kids."

Dick adopts a neutral expression even though one thought goes through his mind. _'WWBD?'_

"I'm keeping an eye out for anything suspicious," Lana continues. "And they're on a strict curfew to be back by dark, and they're traveling in groups. I don't want to deny them the shelter if they don't follow the rules and so far, they're going with it. At least for tonight."

Lana does not want to punish them for being pigheaded and neither did Lena. They have to lay down some kind of guidelines to protect them and also keep a closer eye on them.

"I've got to take this call," Dick tells him. "I wish you the best of luck."

"Thanks," Lana tells him.

Dick exits the Safeway into a back alleyway. He holds up the communicator to his palm.

"So, are you enjoying your time in National City?" The distorted voice asks her.

"Yes, Oracle, although I've found out there's more of a connection between the National City and Bludhaven/Gotham abductions than we thought before."

"Of course," Oracle responds to him. "And all of the National City abductees are more sheltered, even with their problems. They belong to some kind of runaway shelter, while the ones in Gotham City and Bludhaven live a most rougher existence on the streets."

"What else have you found out?" Dick asks her.

"Between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one, some boys, some girls. And I'll look into it to see if there's any connection. And you might want to get into contact with that reporter who is investigating it. You know, Kara Danvers?"

"Yeah," Dick responds to her. "I met her at the Expo and I slipped a tracker on her."

"How very Batman of you," Oracle bluntly comments.

"Hey, if she's investigating this, she might end up in over her head," Dick answers. "Of course, that's before I figure there might be a lot more of her than meets the eye."

"Mmm, interesting," Oracle tells him. "I'll let you know if I have any comment…where is she right now anyway?"

"She's…this tracker must be busted," Dick responds.

"Why do you think it's busted?"

"She's heading to far north, into the Arctic," Dick confirms.

"Hmm, well that confirms my suspicion regarding whom she is," Oracle tells him. "Oracle out."

There were more questions and not too many answers. Dick hopes to figure out what was going on. And making the change to Nightwing to investigate the last known locations of all the "runaways" ranks top of his list.

* * *

Kara slips the piece of plastic underneath a crystal at the Fortress. She figures there would be some kind of answer sooner rather than later. And she intends to see whether the plastic is the key.

"Jor-El, do you know what this is?" Kara asks her.

"Yes," The guardian of the Fortress states. "It's a rare alloy which is used to make the piece of technology known as the MotherBox."

This news chills Kara all the way to the bone. Only two alien planets use the MotherBox, those planets being New Genesis and Apokolips. And she bets New Genesis was not behind this.

' _But, after Darkseid was imprisoned beyond the source wall, Apokolips fell into a civil war and all of his chief lieutenants are ripping apart the planet for control.'_

Kara pieces all she knows and bemoans not knowing a great deal.

* * *

 **To Be Continued on April 11** **th** **, 2018.**

* * *

 **Thanks for all of the favorites, follows, views, kudos, and reviews and I will see you next Wednesday for the latest chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

* * *

Supergirl's next stop after the Fortress brings her on a direct course to L-Corp. Perhaps she just jumps into one of the more obvious hunches ever. She has no idea. However, she thinks there might be some answers. Lena's already in the process of conducting her own investigation. Maybe she uncovers something that Supergirl misses in her check around the situation.

The real question is, should she approach her as Supergirl, or as Kara Danvers. This jarring choice stalls to a close when Kara hears something.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

The grumbling from Supergirl hits a high point. The Girl of Steel drops down to come across a small group of tech-based thieves. Four of them in total and they are waiting high tech armor. She sticks the shadows to get a good look at them. They break into one of the L-Corp research labs through the side entrance. She guesses they are nothing but trouble.

In a flash, one of them turns his attention and arm to Supergirl. A bolt of light cuts through the sky and comes very close to smacking into Supergirl. The beam cuts through the air and hits the fence behind her.

Supergirl lands on the ground and dodges a second blast of light. The figure's arm cannon releases a pulse of heat. Kara notices something particular alien about the technology, just with the way the metal is crafted. She rushes towards the goon squad.

"I don't know what you were thinking. You picked the wrong night."

A whip wraps around Kara's throat. A figure, a helmet covering their face, tries to strangle Kara with an electrified whip. She throws her hands up to break the attack. The largest of the four charges Kara and body checks her. Kara catches him around the arm a second time and flips him down onto the ground. The Girl of Steel tips her head back and lets out a deep breath.

The figure open's up the sleeve and hurls a grenade at Supergirl. The grenade opens up and releases several spikes. Supergirl blocks the attacks and one of the spikes hits the side of her neck. She uses a gust of super breath to knock the large man off guard.

Two electrified whips wrap around Supergirl from either end. They grab onto her arms and legs in an attempt to yank her apart. This material is strong. So strong that even a Kryptonian cannot break it. Supergirl summons all of the strength possible.

The energy from these whips wrapping around her causes her to get weaker. It's not Kryptonite. Kara realizes they are a blend of magic and technology, always a deadly mix. And Kara's just as vulnerable to magic as anyone else. She pushes away from the attack.

A figure swoops in from the shadows. A baton extends and hits one of the attackers in the knee join doubling him over. Kara's arm rips free. The other attack is caught by surprise. The figure in the shadows moves and the other attacker releases the whips.

"Come out!"

The dark-clad figure drops down on the head of the attacker and takes him down to the ground. The large man hoists up a barrel only to find out that it has a miniature explosive on it. The explosion forces the large man back and drops him down to the ground.

The final attacker rushes towards Supergirl with a knife in her hand. Supergirl evades the first couple of attacks from the blade and grabs the attacker around the shoulder. The attacker fights out.

"I don't want to hurt you."

Unfortunately, the attacker does not return the same nature. She pulls out a small blade made entirely of some kind of alien crystal. Kara is careful not to touch the crystal with her bare hands. She disarms the attacker. Not exactly the strongest fighter.

Supergirl hurls the attacker back onto the ground. The attacker charges Supergirl until the Girl of Steel catches the woman around the head. Supergirl tugs at the mask and pulls at it. The attacker swipes at Supergirl to get her away from the attack.

The hood pulls down and Supergirl jumps back. She comes face to face with the girl who just went missing a few days ago. Angie's eyes lock onto Supergirl. They are lifeless and devoid of any emotion.

"Die!"

Supergirl barely blocks Angie stabbing her in the neck. She struggles and puts the girl down to the ground. Supergirl holds her down onto the gorund.

"We can get you some help….."

Another one of the thugs fires one shot with the rocket launcher. Supergirl pulls herself and Angie out of the way. Angie reclaims the knife and slashes Supergirl's cheek with it.

Out of the corner of her eye, Supergirl notices the dark-clad figure swooping up into the air. He shows insane agility and drops down onto the attacker. He stabs a baton in the back of the attacker's legs.

"You should stay down," the mysterious vigilante tells the attacker.

Angie fumbles with something in her pocket. She pushes a button and a gateway opens up. She hurls a grenade over her shoulder which has small fragments of Green Kryptonite sticking out of it. The Kryptonite super heats and creates a cloud of dust which forces Kara to retreat.

Three of the four intruders escape. The disturbance also grabs the attention of L-Corp security. Supergirl staggers back, holding her breath not to breath in any of the Kryptonite vapor. Kara covers her face with her cape to block it out.

Someone is giving these thugs all of their weapons. Supergirl slips outside of the gates of the company where security is looking around. They notice the single thug and the rocket launcher he used on the ground. They move over to collect him.

Supergirl wonders what the hell happened to her mysterious savior. He disappears into the shadows and likely does not have a Boom Tube to get him out of there. This fact leaves Kara with a few questions she is bound and determined to get the answers to.

* * *

The rooftop of CatCo is the perfect vantage poin. There are a couple of people mulling around. Which serves Kara just as nicely, and allows her to sort out the latest discovery. Angie's alive, all of the other Safeway kids who have been kidnapped are fine. Yet, as Kara frustrates herself by pointing out, they are currently under the influence of some manipulative force.

' _It's just one of those days,'_ Kara tells herself.

A hand rests on her shoulder. Kara spins around and almost comes close to knocking the head of her mysterious guest off of the rope. She stops, take a deep breath.

"Good reflexes, although for someone with super speed you would think you would be a little bit faster."

The figure comes closer into prominence. Kara sets her eyes on him. Dark hair and handsome features even on the other side of the black mask he wears. The costume the vigilante wears is very nice with how it fits him. The symbol on his chest, and Kara steps back when recognizing it.

"Nightwing," Kara murmurs.

"At your service, Supergirl," Nightwing tells her with a smile. "You took a couple of nasty hits out there."

"Yeah. That's one way of putting it. But, I think the worst hit is the girl that I was trying to find, when I think she's been kidnapped, she's the one that attacked me."

Nightwing offers her a sympathetic smile. "That's rough. I can tell you hesitated to do anything against her when the mask can off. I was dealing with the others, not sure what her deal was. So are you saying she's one of them who disappeared?"

"Yes," Kara confirms for him. "She's one of the children at the Safeway. Angela Beaumont is her name. She's been in trouble, but finally starting to get her life back together. She's about ready to go to college this coming semester and hopefully….well hopefully she would have done okay. Now, I don' know."

"And they used a Boom Tube to get away," Nightwing offers.

"So…you're one of his?" Kara asks.

"Well, I'm doing my own thing right now," Nightwing tells her. "But, I'm always happy to help out an old friend. And he asked me to help you….he and your cousin go way back."

"Yeah, that's one way of putting it," Supergirl tells him with a frown. She reaches for the back of her neck and scratches it. "They have a very…well they aren't exactly the best of friends."

"Batman thinks a lot of your cousin," Nightwing tells her. "He might be hard on him and I think that even Kal would agree it's rightfully so so because there's times where he does have his head firmly wedged up his ass. No offense."

Kara snorts. Stubbornness can be a family trait and Kara feels like she gets hit from hit from time to time. She takes a second to scratch the back of her neck again.

"Oh, I almost forgot, since we've had a chance to properly meet, I can take this back."

Nightwing slips a device off of the back of Supergirl's neck. She jumps in in shock and astonishment. It takes maybe a full twenty seconds to properly register what just happened and what he just took off the back of her neck.

"You slipped a tracking device on me?" she coolly asks. "How?"

Truth be told, Supergirl's torn between being angry at Nightwing slipping her with a tracking device and being extremely curious how he pulls off the trick. As far as Supergirl knows, she has not come into contact with him yet, so it would have to be a slight of hand.

"Come on, Supergirl," Nightwing tells her with a roguish grin. "A magician never reveals his secrets. And…to be fair, if I didn't…."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Supergirl says with a defeated slump of her shoulders. "So, what do you know about this entire kidnapping thing?"

It was long past overdue for both of them to fill the other in on what they knew. Personally, Nightwing's just glad they skip past the entire fighting each other the first time they met thing. Because, that particular trait in heroes gets really old really fast and Dick wants to avoid it whenever possible.

* * *

Smoke fills the air in a warehouse in one of the less well to do parts of National City. Several youths kick around playing cards, drinking beers, and smoking. A few of them are reading stacks of comic books.

"Read them and weep ladies," one of the boys at the table.

"You cheating bastard!" another one of the boys grumbled.

Another snaps his fingers. "Yeah, you can't really win that many hands in a row. There's something really weird about you…you're manipulating the cards."

"Don't be stupid," the first boy says.

A knowing smile crosses over the face of the boy with a couple of purple sparks emitting from his fingertips. A couple of the girls return from the private quarters of the man who runs this place. They pull their skirts down walking funny all the way to dropping down. One of them takes a bottle of pills from a box and puts to in her hand. She shoves the pills into her mouth and chases it down with a swig of whiskey.

The woman slumps against the wall. The other just pushes her on the floor to take the half drunken bottle of whiskey and downs it with a few swigs.

A trio of figures wearing armor makes their way. Only a couple of the other children pay them any mind. The figure approaching behind them catches more of the attention of the ground.

Short, and hunched over, with disgusting skin the color of rancid milk, the figure moves over. Beady little yellow eyes fix on them. A large wooden staff wraps around his hand when he approaches the area.

"Face front!" the hunched over man snaps.

All of the children who can stand get to their feet. One of them drops his bong down onto the ground to properly face them.

"I've given all of you a purpose in life. All of you have lost your parents, your lives, your future because you are not want society molds you to me. They tell you what you can and cannot do. Well, I'm giving you the opportunity to be all of what you can be. This is a world of freedom. You do no longer have to go to an institution which the administrators feed your mind with lies. Where they tell you the person who you are is wrong."

The figure breaks out into a smile.

"I have become like a father to all of you," he says. "Because all of your real fathers are bastards who cast you out because you do fit their plan. That is, if they even bother to show up at all. And most of your mothers are shameless whores who spread their legs for the first man who gives them any kind of attention."

The figure's mouth twists into one of those smiles which may drive chills down the spine of anyone who comes across of it.

"Have I not provided you with anything that will make you happy?"

"Yes, Mister Sleez!" they all cheer in unison.

The man, Sleez, breaks out into a smile. Maggots hang from his rotted teeth. Despite this, all of the teenagers look on them.

"But, yet, I give you one simple task. To steal an item from L-Corp's research and development lab, and yet, you cannot do a simple task."

The three runaways who return back off from Sleez. Sleez stares them all down with contempt and disgust on them. He reminds a couple of them of their parents.

"I try and be a fair man," Sleez says. "Tell me, Angela, why did you fail?"

"I failed because of Supergirl, and I'm sorry, Mister Sleez," Angie tells him.

"There was someone else," one of the boys reminds her.

"Someone else?" Sleez asks. "Who could it be? Who is it?"

"We…we didn't see him. He…..well he got Joey and….."

"He made fools out of the rest of you!" Sleez bellows. "And when someone like that makes a fool out of you, you make a fool out of me. After all that I've given you, do you really think that I enjoy being foolish?"

The three teenagers quiver in fear from Sleez's disgusting expression locking onto them all. They all wonder what they have done to deserve something like this.

"WELL DO YOU THINK I DO?"

"No, sir, absolutely not, sir!"

Sleez throws the wooden staff over the head of one of the failed youths and drops him down to the ground. They all step back in shock. Sleeze drives the staff into his chest and presses the boy down on the ground.

"Jeffery here has caused great shame to our family. He's brought disgrace to this household."

"It won't happen again, Daddy!" Jeffery yells.

"You better hope it doesn't," Sleez tells him. "Get to your feet and get out of my sight before I change my mind."

Jeffery scrambles to the other end of the room, not even bothering to look over his shoulder toward Sleez. Everyone moves away from him as if he's carrying the plague. He bends over, picks up a rusty razor blade, and retreats to the corner.

"Drop it, Jeffery," Sleez tells him. He turns to another one of the party. "Angela?"

"Sir?"

"Report to my quarters, I will deal personally deal with you there."

The three other girls sitting around have their eyes widen and they cast jealous looks on Angie when she retreats. These girls, and some of the boys, would like nothing better than to be punished by their "father." Angie scurries off to await her fate and leaves everyone else in the room, including the final party who failed.

A guard steps into the room. Sleez lowers his staff at the guard. The two spend the next couple of minutes eye to eye with each other before Sleez clears his throat.

"Sir, Mr. Dagget's truck is here."

A smile spreads over Sleez's face. He finally is able to move forward in the plan after the L-Corp setback.

* * *

Lena drops into her office. The latest breakout, and boy how she hates always saying some breakout was the latest one, leaves more unsettling questions than there's answers. That particular part of Research and Development is a nightmare to get on security camera.

"I really should do something about that," Lena mutters to herself. "I wonder what they could have been after here….all of Lex's old projects have been moved to archives."

She never intends to use anything Lex created for their planned purpose. Still, studying them is a very enlightening process which Lena hopes to gather some more information on in due time. They could be after something else or they could be after something else.

Lena has no idea what, but perhaps she's not thinking of this. Then again, the man they picked up was Joseph Smith, a nineteen year old who left the Safeway a few months ago to enlist in the Military. Or, at least that's what Lana was told and the second hand information Lena recalls receiving.

A phone call jolts Lena out of her past thoughts. She wonders who will be calling at this time, especially from an unlisted phone number. She picks up the phone.

"Hello, Lena."

The voice on the other end of the phone causes Lena's skin to crawl and blood to run cold. She has not heard of it for an extremely long time. Lillian Luthor's voice over the phone sends a chill over her spine.

"It's been been a long time," Lena tells. "I heard you had a slight Bat problem."

"Yes, it's forced us to relocate given his...persistence."

Lena finds herself less than sorry to hear about it. It would explain why Cadmus dials back their operations over the past several months.

"But, you're back in operation," Lena remarks. "You really do have more lives than an army of cats."

"A Mother Box Cadmus is studying from from one of our offsite facilities," Lillian informs her daughter.

Recognition dawns on Lena. It explains why Angela and several of the others vanish without anyone seeing him. It would be very obvious, she just needs to piece together all of the information.

"And there's also a weapon we were intending to deploy if the Kryptonian menace becomes a problem," Lillian offers. "We believe they intend to use it to stop Supergirl in her tracks."

"Well, isn't that what you intend to do?" Lena asks.

"I feel that it should be by humanity's hands that aliens are taken down, not from some sleazy disciple from Apokolips. Warn your heroine if you think you should. Hope she doesn't do anything reckless because this…well it's intended to have lethal force which will destroy her if she comes in contact."

"Thanks for the tip," Lena tells her.

Lillian hangs up the phone and leaves Lena debating on what to do next. The right thing will be to inform Supergirl naturally. Although, Lillian's very vague about what she intends to do with the weapon, other than the obvious of taking down Supergirl.

' _Well, at least Lex had a handy way to get a Kryptonian's attention.'_

* * *

Supergirl wonders where Nightwing takes her. They move towards a dusty old office building and past a grandfather clock in the wall. A bust of William Shakespeare sits on the side of the shelf. Nightwing holds out and activates the bust to open up the grandfather clock.

It slides back to reveal an elevator leading down to a secret underground outpost. Supergirl enters at Nightwing's urging and he follows. The two go down and reach the bottom floor.

"It's no Batcave, or even Clocktower, but I think it will do the trick."

Supergirl looks around and sees several state of the art crime computers, a miniature lab, and a couple of prison cells around the area. She notices lamps hanging from one of the cells. The Girl of Steel's mouth hangs open halfway in surprise.

"I think we have a better idea of where we're heading now," Nightwing tells her. "Um, Supergirl?"

"Sorry, this is just…wow, you managed to get this all into National City without anyone noticing it," Supergirl answers.

Nightwing chuckles at Supergirl's awe. The office building belongs to a corporation which is an offshoot to Wayne Enterprises. Anyone looking to take a close look at it will need to navigate through an insane amount of paper. Lucius Fox works very hard at masking some of his employer's off the books assets.

"He's Batman."

Kara cannot argue with Nightwing's assessment or logic. Nightwing puts himself in front of the computer and punches up a picture.

"A friend of mine dug a little deeper and there's most certainly some human trafficking on the West Coast," Nightwing tells her. "Mostly runaways and homeless, the type of people who won't be missed. And here's one of the men who are in the middle of the operation."

A dark-haired gentlemen's picture pops up on the computer in front of them. He looks like your average businessman, the type Kara sees walking down the street and notices nothing of. No one would given how common he is.

"His name is Raymond Bell, and he works for Roland Daggett, the man who currently runs GothCorp."

Kara knows the name. "Didn't Daggett get in a lot of trouble a few years back? But the charges got dropped."

"High priced lawyers and blackmail, they can make anything disappear in the right hands. Daggett's the pipeline from the East and West end of the operations, with Bell spending a lot of time in National City as of late. And GothCorp has an office which is a block away from the National City Safeway."

Everything falls completely into place. Supergirl wonders what other revelations Nightwing can bring.

"Daggett's a pawn though," Nightwing says. "He's not the type to use alien technology…and I think that there's someone else…someone with dangerous powers who is able to manipulate people into doing what he wants. That could be a problem."

Supergirl opens her mouth to say something. Only to be bombarded in the ear with a shrill siren she only is able to hear. She staggers forward a fraction of an inch and coughs a couple of times.

"Supergirl, meet me at L-Corp. It's urgent!"

"Lena," Kara groans. "She has important information….she needs to speak to me in person."

"I should come with you," Nightwing tells her. "In case this is a setup."

Supergirl's expression darkens a slight amount. "I can trust Lena."

"Oh, I don't doubt you can," Nightwing tells her.

Supergirl understands the implied notion and also realizes that there's a small chance that Lena could in fact be used as a pawn by the same person who manipulates Angie and the other Safeway children.

"It would be best if we stick together," Nightwing tells her. "In case they attack again…they might come back in stronger numbers."

Supergirl nods in response. Lena contacting her in such a way only increases Kara's worry. She scoops up Nightwing. She is momentarily distracted by her arms wrapping underneath his toned body.

"This…isn't going to be uncomfortable you is it?" Supergirl asks him. "Because, I can get pretty high when I fly."

"Oh, I'm used to being high,"Nightwing says with a little smirk.

Supergirl spares a smile before the two crime fighters leave answer Lena's call.

* * *

 **To Be Continued on April 18** **th** **, 2018.**

* * *

 **Thanks for the favorites ,follows, views,** **comments, and kudos and I will see you next Wednesday for the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four.**

* * *

Supergirl arrives outside of the window. She notices Lena working on the computer. Every few seconds, Lena's eyes dart over to the clock and then dart to the doorway. Supergirl steps into the window and lands down on the ground. Lena pops up and relaxes when she turns her attention to Kara. There's a gun somewhat visible on the desk and given some of the things Lena's digging into, it's a pretty rudimentary procedure.

"You can use the elevator if you really want to," Lena remarks to the visitor.

"I could," Kara agrees without missing a beat. "But, I think me popping in the window draws less attention."

Lena shakes her head. Supergirl flying inside of her window only causes the press to run wild with all kinds of interesting rumors, innuendo, and implications which are best left for gossip rags. Then again, journalism these days is not above petty gossip, especially when you are a high-ranking politician or a business leader. Lena shakes her head.

The Girl of Steel crosses the office. The first thing she notices is how tired Lena looks. Then again, given the circumstances, Kara hardly finds it all that much surprising for Lena to be a bit worn down and a bit tired. Kara knows and understands all of the circumstances.

Kara adopts a more businesslike approach as Supergirl despite her budding concern for Lena. She knows Lena knows and Lena knows she knows, but still, it's best they do not acknowledge certain facts in case of plausible deniability. Hell, even Kara's thoughts were kept purposely vague.

"So, you found something that could hurt me that…Cadmus has been working on? I thought they were taken care of."

"They're like cockroaches," Lena says. "It's a weapon which will bring to your knees. And there's a pretty good chance it might remove your powers entirely."

This causes Kara to take in her breath. Her chest retracts and then expands.

"The only way someone can do that is if they use…."

Lena holds up her hand. "Gold Kryptonite, I know. And the only piece of gold Kryptonite on Earth was in Lex's possession. Or at least it was years back. Superman never got close enough for Lex to actually come close to using it on him. And Superman's friend…he made sure it went missing."

Kara nods in confirmation, that's what little she found out. Gold Kryptonite permanently depowers Kryptonians, with enough exposure or being introduced into their blood stream. That works pretty much as well. Kara throws her head back and sighs.

"Any luck at the Safeway kids?"

This question catches Lena off guard although she should not find it surprising Supergirl wants to know. Hell, Lena wants to know more answers and the fact she knows so few answers is pretty galling to her.

"Nothing yet. I don't suppose you know anything about it."

"Well, there's this gentlemen who was seen at the scene, just a short time before three of the girls were abducted over in Bludhaven….I think the Bludhaven abductions and the National City abductions are connected with each other."

The worm hits the water and Lena grabs the bait. She turns away from the computer and offers her full and undivided attention to Supergirl.

"I agree," Lena answers. "I think that they are very much connected. And there are some more sinister forces, if what my mother mentioned off hand is true."

Now Kara's interest piques to a brand new level. She is about ready to ask questions and lots of them. And maybe she would have, if Lena does not stick her hand firmly up in the air to prevent Kara from saying anything. Kara pulls herself away from Lena and takes a deep breath.

"Okay, the guy my contact mentioned. He's a guy by the name of Bell and he works for…."

"Daggett," Lena tells her simply. Lena's expression darkens and her tones. "Again, that bastard really likes to push his luck."

Lena Luthor has about as much respect for Roland Daggett as she may for any successful businessman. The problem, as Lena sees it, is that for all of the success Daggett has for taking GothCorp out of the red after the Ferris Boyle scandal involving Victor Fries, he blows it all up by engaging in activities which are illegal. All in the name of corporate greed. In some ways, Boyle reminds Lena of a less successful Lex. Only Lex is a lot better at getting caught and does have some redeemable qualities, despite his obsession with a certain Kryptonian getting the better of him and landing him in prison.

Daggett's only virtue is his connections and the high priced lawyers.

"Well, if Daggett's involved in some kind of human traffic operation…."

Lena hates to interrupt Supergirl, but there's no way around it. "There's someone more dangerous involved. My mother mentioned that she only warned me about the weapon being stolen because you should fall at humanity's hand and not some sleazy alien from Apokolips."

"How kind of her," Kara says with sarcasm barely held back from her tone. "It lines up with what I found. I found a small piece belonging to a Motherbox. You know what one of those are, right?"

Lena nods. Given that one of Lex's aborted projects involves him intending to rebuild one from scratch, Lena understands what it is. And she understands why anyone using them would be a problem. She rises up to her feet and looks Supergirl dead on in the eye without blinking.

"Be careful out there. If that weapon is in anyone's hands from that place and it can take you down, then they will."

"I know," Kara answers. "Thank you for the warning."

"It's the least I can do after all of the times that you pulled my ass out of the fire."

A smile spreads over Supergirl's face. She stops short of the window. While she assumes Lena already knows, it's her duty to say something.

"Angela Beaumont was among the people who broke into L-Corp last night. She's been brainwashed by whoever is behind this."

"I saw her on the tape," Lena answers. "I know you're going to bring her home…she's not a bad person. She's just had a bad life. I could have had that life…if things had not been different."

"I'll bring her home," Supergirl gently says. "And I'll shut down whoever is doing this."

Lena nods and slips a small flash drive into Supergirl's hand, containing the information she's secured on the device She wants to say something more, but in the interest of keeping up appearences, she doesn't. She just allows Supergirl to leave the office. She stands back a couple of feet and takes a breath. Only one thought passes through her head.

' _Godspeed, Kara.'_

Nightwing remains on the ledge safely across from the building. Supergirl floats across the room. Nightwing wonders about the nature of the relationship between Supergirl and Lena Luthor. Other than those idle thoughts, he pushes them to the side because it's really none of his business.

' _Man, Bruce, you'd be disappointed. I didn't take the chance to pry my nose in someone else's relationship that doesn't concern me.'_

Supergirl stops in front of the rooftop.

"There's a weapon which can be used to take me down. Cadmus made it and the guy who is kidnapping the girls, with Daggett's help, he may have it."

"Good work, kid," Nightwing tells her.

"Hey, aren't we the same age?" Kara asks him. "Well, technically, I was in stasis for about all those years…."

"And I've been doing this since I was fourteen," Nightwing remarks to her. This causes an uncomfortable change in Kara's body language. "And yes, I know Batman was reckless allowing a minor fighting the types of villains that's known in Gotham City. But…I'm glad he did. I had a lot of anger issues I had to work out."

"Doesn't therapy exist in Gotham?" Kara asks.

"Not if you actually want to get better."

Nightwing shoots the grapnel across the way. Supergirl follows him so they can figure out where to go next from here.

* * *

A ginger-haired man steps out of a limo. He has a severe face with a small scar underneath his right eye. It's a souvenir from an encounter with Batman, when he attempts to blow up the location in Gotham City known as Crime Alley. Daggett still never figures out why Batman is so interested in protecting those rejects of society. They get in the way of development.

His associate, a middle-aged man with dark hair and an ugly blue suit, steps out of the truck. Raymond Bell, Daggett's trusty right hand man steps. He moves on a little bit with a couple of shivers coming through his body.

"Stay sharp."

"I've been dealing with this guy a lot," Bell tells his boss. "And I feel like I need to take a shower every time. He's scummy as they come. Real weirdo."

Daggett barely even registers Bell's concerns. Hell, he's done business in Gotham City long enough not to be put off by someone. The near misses he's felt makes Daggett feel very confident he's going to expand into National City with his plan.

"Gentlemen, come in here."

The man's voice garbles. Sleez appears from the shadows. He dresses in a brown suit which only serves to make him uglier. A fedora tops the top of his head. Bell allows himself a momentary chuckle. All he's missing is a cane and he would be the world's ugliest pimp.

"I'd like to offer you two gentlemen a drink," Sleez tells them.

"No…thank you," Bell comments.

"I'd prefer to not mix drinks with my business," Daggett answers.

Daggett prefers not to accept a drink from this man. It's one thing to do business with him. He's not against doing business with such a man. However, cozying up to him over a drink is another thing entirely. Sleez shrugs, not taking the matter personally, and he pours himself a drink.

The sludge oozing from the cup makes both Daggett and Bell relieved they did not try the drink. Little black worms wiggle from the sludge. Sleez leans in and then puts a finger into drink. He sucks the still wiggling worm into his mouth. Sleez slurps down the drink without any sense of table manners or etiquette.

' _The things I do for money,'_ Daggett thinks to himself.

"We are on schedule," Sleez breaths out. "The chemical we are created will increase the virility and the stamina of any subject."

"So, wait, you're creating some kind of sex drug?" Bell asks.

Daggett turns to his underling with a small smile crossing over his face. "Not just some kind of sex drug. I'm creating, the sex drug. This drug, once it goes out on the market, it's going to make Viagra obsolete. I think it would be best if we sell it in two forms. A distilled form for standard market and a stronger form for the black market."

"I should warn you, this drug is highly addictive," Sleez tells him. He smashes a cockroach on the table and then lightly scoops it up before slurping. Bell holds his hand to his mouth and looks about ready to hurl. "I need my daily dose of protein."

"If it's addictive, then customers will keep coming back and spending more money," Daggett answers.

"I like the way you think, Roland," Sleez comments. "We had a minor setback at the L-Corp operation, but…it's smooth going from here."

"I'm not sure, Mr. Sleez," Bell manages.

Those eyes turn on Bell who regrets speaking up. He has no idea what Sleez might do. Even, Daggett gives Bell a look as if he highly disapproves of Bell speaking up.

"Please, Raymond, it's just Sleez."

Sleez places his slimy hand on Bell's shoulder and instantly Bell wants to take a shower, potentially with acid. He slides back the chair, trying to be discreet and not rude about it.

"There's this guy, dressed in black, that's been snooping around. Not the Bat, but that other guy, some guy, he's got a dragon type thing on his chest, it's blue and it's…"

"You mean Nightwing?" Daggett asks.

Daggett acts casual about this person sneaking around. To be perfectly fair, he'll show more concern if it was Batman who as the one sneaking around.

"He may be the one with Supergirl," Sleez answers. "But, don't worry, I have a plan which will disgrace and destroy both of them."

Sleez reaches forward and wipes a hanging piece of snot from Bell's face. He licks his finger clean which really disturbs both. Bell more so, because Sleez violates his personal space to perform this action.

' _Man, I hope my Christmas bonus is worth it this year.'_

* * *

Supergirl hates waiting around for anything. After they check out the information on the flash drive, along with a couple of pieces of information, it is to Daggett's Chemical Plant, a rarely used one outside of Starling City.

"So, are you sure this is the place?" Supergirl asks.

"Of course, this is the most likely place for Daggett to be doing something," a voice in Kara's ear piece says which causes her to jump up almost ten feet.

Nightwing gently tugs her back into the shadows by the cape. The two stand in the shoulders.

"I see you've hacked the DEO's frequency," Nightwing casually says.

"Well, I've hacked that a long time ago," the voice remarks over both of their ear pieces. "I was just waiting for the right time to jump and introduce myself. So, hey, Supergirl, my name is Oracle."

"Seriously, the Oracle?" Supergirl asks.

"Please don't fan girl when we're on a stealth mission," Nightwing mutters even though he was smiling fondly.

"Sorry, but she's just…well she's a legend," Supergirl says managing to hold herself. "And you hacked the DEO frequencies, they are highly encrypted, I should know because I have a friend who did it and he's going to be so pissed when….."

"Well, it will just give them a chance to try harder when I leave," Oracle answers. "I hope they do better next time because I like a challenge. So anyway….I should let you know that the truck that they stole, the one that the DEO is tracking, is here. I know because Cadmus has been tracking too."

"So, you broke into Cadmus as well?" Nightwing asks.

"It's me, remember."

Nightwing figures just about as much.

"So, maybe you should let the DEO know that their truck is here?" Kara asks. "Or do you want me to do that?"

"I think you should take a look at the truck before you jump to conclusions," Oracle answers. "Nothing is that easy. But, that's something you can only learn in Gotham City. And Daggett does have ties to Cadmus as well, although they let him go when he started working with our sleazy alien friend."

Kara's head spins. She has no idea how this woman has so much information, but one does not build a reputation like she has. The two make their way into the building and around the guards. It's slow going sticking to the shadows. It's best though in some circumstances not to cause a scene.

"According to the official involve, they are supposed to be making cold medicine or pain relief. However, word out in the street is that Daggett Industries is making some kind of sex drug which will make that little blue pill obsolete."

"Why would there be a market for such a thing?" Kara asks.

"Old men who can't perform," Oracle answers. "Those are underequipped in certain areas as well if these reports are right….I'm not sure if it's really healthy and there is side effects. But….people get desperate."

"I get that," Supergirl agrees.

They slip into the basement area. Nothing out of the ordinary just yet, just some old rusted out lab equipment lining the basement walls. They move to another room and there's shelves upon shelves of DVDs. None of them are labeled.

"Okay, I'm going to jump to a conclusion and say that those DVDs are not fit for children," Supergirl says with an exasperated breath.

"Some of them might not even be fit for adults," Nightwing comments.

Dozens upon dozens of mysterious unlabeled DVDs. Dick makes his way to a laptop at the end of the area. It's heavily encrypted.

"I'll watch the door," Supergirl offers.

"Thanks."

Now with Oracle is in the system, Nightwing has a chance to look around and see what he has to deal with. Nothing other than the DVDs in this particular room, although he hazards a guess the content on the DVDs may be questionable by law.

"Well, I didn't really get much information. I guess he's not stupid enough to put what's on those DVDs. I doubt it's the extended edition of Bambi."

Nightwing agrees with Oracle's assessment. He moves and Supergirl follows. The two of them climb up the steps and go into the dock area. The truck stands right there, but it's completely empty. And more crates are being wheeled from the warehouse.

"I can't wait until the boss gets what he wants," a man murmurs.

"That's Bell," Supergirl mutters.

Nightwing sees the man and he shakes and shivers when walking down the way. He's not exactly the most put together man to begin with and now he's a quivering basket of nerves.

"We should follow him."

* * *

Nightwing and Supergirl stick the shadows when moving across town. Raymond Bell stops at the entrance and the gates of a facility. He moves down the way. Nightwing and Supergirl follow him and the first thing they see out in a garage is crates of weapons. Supergirl checks out the weapons and takes a deep breath it. Those are the same weapons Intergang use which have been confiscated. They are from the missing shipment that Alex was helping chase down earlier. Supergirl almost has to do a dance in surprise, but stops.

"Call it in if you…."

Both stop when hearing something. Bell disappears down the way and he's talking to someone else. Nightwing walks a bit closer to the window to take a look in. Supergirl follows him close beyond. No one stands there, at least not yet.

Then, he walks back into their line of sight and boy does this gentlemen look rather hideous. Disgusting skin the color of rancid milk, short and hunched over, and teeth which look particularly rotten, and Supergirl stares at him to try and see if it is something she recognizes. The ugly brown suit and disgusting looking fedora he wears only adds to the disgusting appeal of him.

"That must be the guy. That has to be the guy."

The duo slips into the hallway to get a jump on the man. They stop in front of the computer which blinks with information. Nightwing notices a chemical formula on it. He spends a few seconds analyzing the formula with a very dark expression spreading over his face.

"They're manufacturing a date-rape drug," Dick grimly concludes.

"What?" Kara asks.

Kara sees the formula and understands what they are going for. It turns her stomach and adds another depraved layer on top of an already depraved scheme.

"More powerful than anything that's been put out," Nightwing continues. "And there's also a distilled form they're putting out that's the sex drug Oracle's mentioned. And that's bound to have some kind of addictive side effects."

They move into the lab area where the drug is being manufactured. There's only one thought which enters the minds of these crime fighters. They are going to have to shut this place down before the drug reaches the streets.

"Good afternoon, Supergirl."

The disgusting alien moves into the picture with three young ladies around him. They dress in scantily clad clothes, but also are armed with weapons.

"I'm afraid we have not been formally introduced. My name is Sleez."

A fitting name for a fitting person, and Supergirl's eyes dart towards the brainwashed girls next to them.

"What did you do them?" Supergirl demands.

"Oh, such fire, you'll be fun to subvert," Sleez says. He licks his disgusting lips while gawking at her. "I'm an empath. I particularly have a thrill of controlling the emotions of the weak and the vulnerable."

"Yeah, well that's going to stop right now," Nightwing answers. "We're shutting your entire operation down now, Jabba."

"I think not," Sleez says before he motions for the girls. "Attack them my pets."

One of them retracts a baton and sends an electrified whip at Nightwing. Nightwing avoids the whip and jumps into the air. The whip wraps around a pillar and gets stuck. Nightwing rushes down the pillar and takes down the woman, rendering her completely unconscious with one attack.

Supergirl avoids the attack from the biggest of the three women. The fist comes close to connecting Supergirl's face. She adopts a fully defensive approach to fighting her enemy. The Girl of Steel flips behind the woman and drives her down onto the ground. The woman rolls over with Supergirl driving the full force down onto the chest of her enemy. Supergirl steps back from the battle.

The third women attacks Nightwing. Nightwing dodges a baton going into the side of his face. Nightwing grabs his attacker around the arm and takes him down to the ground.

A dart flies and connects Supergirl in the side of the neck. Supergirl's eyes flood over and her blood starts to boil. Supergirl throws her head back and screams, dropping to her knees. She struggles as the drug twists her body and her mind. The strength of the drug pushes back the harder Supergirl fights it inside of her body. And the adrenaline from the battle helps speed about the decay of her inhibitions.

"Yes," Sleez breaths. "Yes, take what's yours!"

Supergirl watches as Nightwing finishes off the final of the women. She licks her lips at the way she moves. The Girl of Steel is sick of being the good little girl scout, standing on the side lines. She knows what she wants and she's going to take it, even if that disgusting villain is there to watch it.

Suddenly, Nightwing slams hard against the wall. Supergirl presses up against him. Her nipples harden through the edge of her costume and her hair swings about wildly. Burning lust fills Supergirl's eyes as she rips at Nightwing's armor in a feverish attempt to remove it.

"I'm tire of playing second fiddle. I'm going to take what I want!"

"You need to fight this," Dick groans.

It was becoming hard for him to fight this, hard being the obvious word. Supergirl's hand moves down and grabs his crotch and squeezes it with a wide smile on her face.

Sleez's excitement only grows. Supergirl is brought to nothing other than a primal animal, ready to take what she wants. He prepares to film this little escapade as Supergirl overwhelms Nightwing and pushes him against the wall.

"Supergirl, you don't want to do this," Nightwing groans.

"Yeah, I do, and you do as well," Supergirl breaths in his ear. "Come on. I know your not-so little friend wants to come out and play."

"Make sure to roll that camera," Sleez tells one of his flukees.

He enjoys what's about to happen. In the eyes of these humans, Supergirl comes close to taking Nightwing, consent be damned. The drug pumps through her body and twists her morality into something else. Sleez smiles widely. One small act, even under the influence, is about to ruin Supergirl's entire reputation. The media would brand her as a rapist and people would lose hope. If their hero can be twisted, then they will lose faith.

Sleez finds the implication quite delicious.

Dick Grayson thinks quickly under fire and then reaches in to grab the back of Supergirl's head. He pushes her hair back and then moves close towards her.

"Oh, finally, you've stopped fighting."

Nightwing attacks her with an aggressive kiss. Supergirl opens her mouth to take his tongue inside. She receives a warm kiss ,with his right hand beginning to slip underneath her skirt to further distract Supergirl for his next play.

A small piece of Kryptonite slides out of lead lined pouch in his utility belt and weakens Supergirl. Nightwing holds the Kryptonite to Supergirl's neck and drags her away towards the exit.

"NO!" Sleez yells.

Nightwing throws a canister into the air which breaks open. A cloud of gas fills the warehouse, with Nightwing using the Kryptonite to pull Supergirl out of the line of sight.

"CLEAR EVERYTHING OUT!" Sleez bellows to anyone who will hear him. "IN AN HOUR! DO YOU HEAR ME?"

He throws his hands up in the air and blasts the camera. The three girls who came with him cower against the wall in fear, not sure what their master will do to them. But given that he was denied his super hero sex tape, it might not be anything good.

* * *

 **To Be Continued on April 25** **th** **, 2018.**

* * *

 **Thanks for the favorites, follows, views, kudos, and comments and I'll see you next week for the next chapter.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five.**

* * *

Somehow, by some miracle, Nightwing just barely manages to get Supergirl out of there. The flight back is done on pins and needles. He keeps Supergirl under with the hunk of Green Kryptonite in his utility belt. He never thinks there would be just cause to use it.

She starts stirring and a very trouble, and yet at the same time erotic moan, comes out. Dick closes his eyes and pilots the vessel down outside of the safe house. He's pretty sure no one has followed him to the safehouse, at least sure enough where he does not feel paranoid because of it. Regardless, Dick bites down on his lip and takes a couple more breaths before exiting the vessel.

' _Just remember, getting her to the cell is important. Don't let her distract you.]_

Rising and falling breasts combining with hard nipples, a skirt which shifts up, wild hair, and intense bedroom eyes serves as a distraction for Nightwing. He grabs Supergirl's hand and makes sure to keep the Green Kryptonite on her. Her fingers shift over. Dick manages not to let her overwhelm him by keeping enough radiation on her to stir her.

"It's okay," he tells her. "You're almost here. I'm going to help you."

"Oh, you can help me out of these tight clothes," Supergirl says with a smile on her face. "And maybe you can slip inside something a bit more comfortable. Some nice warm and velvet even."

Nightwing starts reciting baseball scores in his head. It does not help that Supergirl uses what little strength she has to sway her ass and try to rub it into his crotch.

"Open for Nightwing," Nightwing says.

"Oh, I'd open for you alright, big boy."

The perverted comment from the obviously drugged Supergirl just passes through Nightwing's mind. It wasn't like she was the first superheroine under the influence who shamelessly hit on him. Or even the first alien superheroine who shamelessly hits on him while under the influence of some kind of drug.

She tugs on his mask and pulls it off. Nightwing sends her into the cell. Nightwing lures her into the cell. A wall separates them when red solar lamps kick on.

"Ooooh! You have shackles. Let's test them to see if they hold. And if they don't, well maybe I can put you in there because I saw you checking out my ass earlier!"

The red solar radiation depowers Supergirl. It does very little to taper off the lust she's feeling. Dick comes eye to eye with her. A swipe of her tongue against her lips and in the inside of her cheek leads up to a puckering of her lips. Supergirl runs her hand down and rubs her nipples through her suit.

A small nanobot with a Kryptonite tip brushes against Supergirl's shoulder. She jumps about halfway up and almost crashes into the ceiling. She sticks out her lip and pouts big time.

The bot returns with the blood sample. Nightwing settles down for what seems to be a long night.

"You know, I don't know why you bothered with that little pick. You've got a nice big prick which you can use if you want to get a DNA sample from me. Careful though, I might extract a really big sample from you, hottie!"

Dick pinches the bridge of his nose and starts to get to work. He notices a very familiar substance within the blood. He figures it should have been obvious from the get go.

"Red Kryptonite, I knew it," he summarizes. "It's amplified, mixed with the drug. It was especially created for Supergirl."

"Hey, everyone, look up in the sky. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Supergirl, and I can see her panties!"

Nightwing notices the forbidden sight of Supergirl's skirt flipping up out of the corner of his eye. He takes a deep breath and enters a state of deep meditation.

"Dick Grayson, I should have known you were Nightwing. And hey, I took a look at your junk and you really do live up to your name!"

"You've been infected with an enhanced form of Red Kryptonite," Dick tells her. "I need to create some kind of antidote and bring you back to your normal self."

"Orrrr!" she says purposely drawing the word out. "You can help me sweat it out. Why don't you show me what a real man can do to a silly little Supergirl?"

Kara breathes on the screen and fogs it up. She traces the words "fuck me" on the screen and then leaves lip marks all over the screen. She scrawls the words "Kara needs Dick" and puts a smiley face underneath it before sticking out her tongue.

"You know," Kara continues. "That RedK junk, it only removers that little nasty filter in my brain which causes me to be a good little Supergirl. I'm sick of being a good little girl scout. I want to be a bad girl. I need to be a bad girl."

Kara leans against the glass. It's thick and with the Red Solar energy keeping her at bay, she cannot even move it.

"I'll be your bad girl. Just come over here and teach me everything you know."

"Chill for a minute," Dick tells her.

Kara folds her arms in response, sticks out her lip in the most obvious pout, and tuts loudly.

"You're no fun."

Dick hates to admit it, but this is one situation where he cannot afford to be any fun. The girl making lewd noises behind him distracts Dick. A few beads of sweat coats Nightwing's face. Supergirl, an untamed Supergirl, comes precious inches away from giving him a stroke.

' _WWBD,'_ Dick thinks to himself.

"It's lonely here, just sitting in this dark, cold cell, playing with myself. My kitty needs to be stroked. Won't you come here and pet my kitty, Nightwing? I bet she'll purr for you."

' _And here I thought Selina cornered the market on those puns,'_ Dick thinks. _'Okay, Grayson, focus, I know there's a hot blonde in the cell who wants to jump your bones, but she needs your help and not your…well…there will be time for that later….when both of your heads are clear, if something is meant to happen.'_

Dick finally blocks everything out despite the sound of hand slapping against ass getting louder and more prominent. It is very hard to think when the blood starts flowing in places which are not the brain. Dick tries to the blood flowing to the brain and not to other parts of his body.

* * *

Roland Daggett almost hurls the cell phone down onto the ground in anger. It's unbelievable that Sleez did not even bother to call him back despite Daggett hammering on the horn for the better part of two hours. He's beginning to think there's some kind of trouble.

' _That son of a bitch better not betrayed me.'_

Daggett walks outside. He's going to have to tell his men to deal with the truck and get it the hell out of here. Just what Daggett needs, something else to complicate his already complicated situation.

"FREEZE!"

Roland Daggett turns around to see a woman walking around the corner and she holds a gun on him. Several other government agents move in and hold weapons on Daggett.

"You're under arrest," the lead agent says.

A smug and satisfied expression spreads over Daggett's face. "I beg your pardon. Under what charges?"

The handcuffs slap on Daggett's wrists and it comes to his attention these are not the standard police officers he has to deal with on a day to day basis. These government agents move around and take a close look at the truck. Daggett starts to sweat and shake the longer this happens.

No Sleez coming around the corner, not that Daggett expects him to do anything to help. Daggett takes a couple of ragged and very deep breaths.

Alex joins the rest of the group and she sees a lot of damning evidence that there's something up right now. She turns around and glares a hole through Daggett. Daggett does nothing other than stare back at her.

"You're in a lot of trouble, Daggett. You've been trafficking stolen goods and people, and one of your employers have been seen at the scene of at least one of the kidnappers."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Daggett yells. "You better let me go this instant. You have no right, whoever you are."

Alex is really not in the best of moods right now. She walks across the way and notices a few traces of blood outside of the factory. It's not the best thing to come across blood in a situation like this. Mortal dread fills her body and the sound of moaning comes from inside of the warehouse. The moaning's muffled and at the same time, very audible. Alex brushes a strand of hair away from her face.

"Cover, me, I'm heading inside."

"That bastard Sleez, he set me up for a fall!" Daggett demands. "He was going to help me distribute, and now he turns on me like that. That son of a bitch, when I get my hands on him, he's going to pay."

Alex says nothing and decides to just let Daggett further incriminate himself. She moves further to the factory and keeps a close lookout for any possible things she might have to find. The sound of the muffling grows even louder the closer Alex goes into the factory.

"My god," she mutters.

Alex steps into the factory and comes across a woman with light brown hair laying on the floor. Clothes tattered, a rag stuffed in her mouth, and hands tied together with a rope. One can see a shaking body. Alex holds her weapon to see if the man who performed such a heinous act is close by. She hears nothing, and sees nothing. Alex's shaking hands move three hundred and sixty degrees.

"Just hold on," Alex tells the trembling girl. "We'll send for help. We'll send for an ambulance. Everything is going to be okay, alright?"

The trembles follow a whimper from the woman. Alex pulls the rag off of her mouth and she screams out in terror. She backs off against the ground and shakes, resembling a scared rabbit more than a human being. The breathing only increases in raggedness the closer she moves to hitting the wall.

"SUPERGIRL!" the woman screams at the top of her lungs.

This particular statement sets Alex aback. After the first scream, the woman rocks back and forth with madness dancing through her eyes. She breaths in and breaths out. One can see the frustrating building and more importantly some kind of tension mounting in her.

"Supergirl," she murmurs again. "Supergirl! Supergirl!"

She keeps chanting this on a constant loop while rocking back and forth against the wall. Alex turns to the DEO agents who have a half empty crate.

"It's looks like they cleared out most of the merchandise, although there's enough here to incriminate Daggett."

Alex is very curious to learn where the merchandise went. She figures Daggett is not going to willingly tell them too much at the moment.

"He has…well he has illegal pornography here as well," the agent remarks. "This….well it's disgusting some of the items on this list…if it's true."

Alex takes one look at the list. She prides herself of having very open tastes. However, there are some things which even turn Alex's stomach when looking at it. If Daggett's been selling this on the side, well there's another reason to take him in.

"Get him back to the DEO," Alex says. "I'm sure Director Henshaw is going to want to speak with him."

* * *

One of the most terrible headaches ever greets Kara when she wakes up. A thought of what the hell just happened crosses her mind. Kara notices quickly how unraveled her uniform is and how badly she smells like a house of ill-repute. She looks up at the fingers which look rather sticky and almost raw at the same time.

The memories of what Kara did under the influence did. She feels a bit better, and at the same time worse than she's ever felt.

"So, how are you?" Dick asks her.

She did not realize he stands outside of the cell and it makes her jump back. Nerves hit Kara something fierce when she backs up against the wall. The memories of what she tried to do filter back into her mind. Kara wants to go red and throw herself in the Phantom Zone.

"I'm still not done with the cure," Dick tells her. "But, I'm almost done."

"Wait, if you're not done, then why am I so lucid?"

To be honest, this is a very fair question and one Dick has an answer for straight away from the studying.

"Those red solar lamps sap your energy .And the drug is feeding off of your adrenaline and also the yellow solar radiation which is causing your adrenaline. Once you've had a chance to calm down and get out of your system, you're more lucid."

"You should really keep me in this cell until the antidote is done," Kara offers with a slight shrug. "You know, just in case something tempts me.

Kara backtracks the instant what she's implying.

"Not that I'm saying you're asking for it...but..."

"Good plan."

Dick returns to working. Kara can only imagine some of the things she's suppressing remembering saying when under the influence. She's certain it's not her fault, but she still can't help to feel guilty. Kara let her guard down for a few seconds and it cost her.

She could have hurt him, badly, had he not been so on the ball and ready with a countermeasure. And being so paranoid and prepared he actually had Kryptonite on him. Then again, she suspects the hand of Batman might have had something to do with it.

Much like with the cell, which likely had monitoring which Batman can access. This causes Kara's face to tingle with red. The heat flows directly to her cheeks and she takes a deep breath.

' _Rao strike me down hard,'_ she thinks with her cheeks lighting up like a traffic light in embarassment.

"Why does my head feel like someone is stomping on it?" Kara asks.

"It's called a drug hangover," Dick answers. "I've been there. Trust me, coming down from Fear Toxin is the worst because you have chills for days."

Kara takes Dick's word for it. He mixes up something which bubbles. Dick walks across the hallway to the cell and opens it up to hand Kara the drink. Kara eyes the drink and takes it. She gulps down the drink in a couple of gulps and grimaces.

"Yeah, I know it wouldn't be the most pleasant tasting thing in the world. But it gets the job done."

"No kidding," Kara dryly says. "It tastes like chalk. And hey, my head's all the way cleared up now so…."

She figures it might be the best to make her costume somewhat presentable, realizing how it now looks like if someone made a Fetish custom for Supergirl sexual roleplay. Kara does her best to mend the rip in her chest. She cannot ever see herself flying around in a costume with a large hole in her chest no matter how long she lives.

The news flashes across the screen and one news item catches the interest of both Kara and Dick. The scroll stating that Roland Daggett has been arrested for possession of illegal pornography flashes over the screen.

"Couldn't have happened to a nicer person," Dick says. "But, it's surprising."

"That he got arrested?" Kara asks.

"Well, it be even more surprising if this sticks," Dick informs Kara. "But, Daggett's normally the one who comes ahead in the business deals. I'm going to have to say that he bit off a bit more than he could chew and really screwed himself over."

Funnily enough, Kara agrees. She still feels sore and a bit bad, with breaths coming over her body. It is very hard for her to keep calm enough to say much of anything. Her gaze falls upon Dick's.

"So, I guess all I have to say is that I'm sorry," Kara manages.

"Well, to be fair, you're not the first alien woman tried to jump me. Although, the last one shoved her tongue down my throat to learn the English language...but that's beside the point."

Dick tries to lighten the mood and Kara throws her head back. Her hair is still a bit of a detangled mess. Kara wishes she can go back for a spare costume other than the horror show that she's wearing right now. It's all rip and torn in some very naughty places.

"It sounds bad when you talk about it like that," Kara says with a grimace. "So, I'm sorry…and yeah, when I was…I might have removed your mask, which is kind of a superhero no-no, isn't it?"

"At least you were more polite about it than your cousin was about it with Batman," Dick tells her. "He looks underneath Batman's mask with his X-Ray vision about thirty seconds after they come face to face and sees…who he is."

"Really?" Kara asks. "I'm honestly surprised Batman didn't line his mask with lead. I mean, it's not exactly a secret that blocks X-Ray vision."

"You raise a good point," Dick comments with a chuckle. "And it's really only fair. You know that I'm Dick Grayson and I already know that you're Kara Danvers."

Not really surprising to be honest. Kara clutches the edge of the table and shivers. There's still a few lasting effects from the drug, but to be honest, there's nothing worse than the darker feeling she has in her mind.

"You're going to be alright," Dick tells her.

"I know I will be," Kara agrees. "I'm worried about people who don't how my abilities, how the drug is going to effect them? Men, women…children who can be victimized by this drug."

Dick puts his hand on hers. Kara allows it to happen and in fact wraps her fingers into his. A second passes prior to Dick releasing his firm grip from around her hand.

"I think it's time to pay your sister a visit."

Not surprising once again how much Dick knows. Kara finds herself smiling.

"Wow, you've really done your homework."

"To be fair, Oracle does most of the homework. I'm capable of finding out a lot of things on my own, but she has obsessive archives of everyone who is anyone and one of the top DEO agents would be someone worthy of keeping an eye on. Especially if her adopted sister is Supergirl."

Fair enough, Kara supposes. She notices a bag sitting on the chair and sees a second Supergirl costume, one which is not soaked in Kara's juices and torn to shreds inside of it.

"Shower's over there if you want to get cleaned up," Dick tells her. "And I've disabled the camera in the changing room for the next ten minutes. Will that be long enough?"

"Yes," Kara answers him and gives him a light kiss on the cheek. "Sorry."

"No need to apologize for your gratitude," Dick tells her.

He watches Kara go off to make a quick change. Dick slides his ear piece in and gets in touch with Oracle.

"Yes, I intercepted the footage of Supergirl's impromptu Cam Show," Oracle dryly remarks. "Even though the Bat Computer is capable of playing three-dimensional porn, I figured it would be for the best if this doesn't reach it. I'm holding onto it though, just to study the effects of the drug."

"So, is that what it's being called now?" Dick teases her.

"Don't be a dick, Grayson."

"Remember, no real names on the comm links," Dick reprimands her before the call is disconnected.

He hears the water turning off and seconds later, Kara's there. Dick smiles and puts his mask back on before the two of them set off.

* * *

Roland Daggett sits in a prison cell in the DEO. He has no worries, no concerns. He feels it is only a matter of time before his attorney is here and this big mistake is rectified. He leans back against the cell in the chair and is about ready to stick his feet up.

Alex Danvers steps in front of the cell and peers at Daggett.

"You really don't have any sense of decency, do you?"

Daggett lifts a single finger up to his lips and swipes to the right making a zipping motion over his mouth. He taps the side of his head and then points down the hallway before pointing to himself and smiling at the government agent.

Alex really wants five minutes with that asshole. The information they find is not really good and she has a feeling the illegal pornography and the alien weapons are just scratching the surface. Alex turns and notices Kara arriving in the DEO. Her hair stands up straight and her face has a few scratches over it.

"You look like hell," Alex comments.

"I felt like hell, but I'm getting better," Kara tells her sister. "And I have a pretty good reason to feel like hell. I was drugged by Sleez."

Alex jumps completely to the defensive. Sleez is a name which came up and their intelligence states he's a low-level disciple of Darkseid. He's not on the Granny Goodness tier, in fact he's way below, but he's still dangerous. Alex has no idea how dangerous he can be.

"Did he hurt you?" Alex asks.

"No, he didn't," Kara remarks. "If Nightwing wasn't there, I don't want to even know what happens."

"Nightwing?"

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Agent Danvers."

Alex jumps up and comes face to face with a dark haired man dressed in black with a blue symbol and a belt full of gadgets. His hair is short in the front and very long in the black. He offers Alex a smile, who almost comes close to blasting him with her weapon.

"Sorry, Bat habit. Not the best way to introduce yourself."

More DEO agents come in to hold their weapons at the young man. Director Henshaw leads the charge into the area. Nightwing offers him a smile and reaches forward to shake his hand. Nightwing leans in so only the two can hear each other.

"Batman sends his regards, J'onn."

The two men lock hands and a package slips into Henshaw's hand. Alex blinks and realizes that it's a small package of cookies which passes between two men.

"Drop your weapons, "Henshaw says. "He can be trusted."

Alex raises an eyebrow. Did Nightwing just bribe J'onn with cookies?

It seems they were wrong as well. Supergirl's investigation and the one the DEO were on, were not that far apart. In fact, they were intertwined.

* * *

 **To Be Continued on May 2** **nd** **, 2018.**

* * *

 **Thanks for all of the favorites, follows, views, kudos, and comments and I'll see you next Wednesday for the next chapter.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six:**

* * *

Some things never change and one of the thing is Roland Daggett being a self-assured smug snake who thinks he's the one who is completely in control. Supergirl moves next to Nightwing and Agent Alex Danvers. Alex only spares a brief look at the man in the cell.

"He knows something that he's not telling us," Alex says finally cutting the silence.

"Yes," Nightwing agrees. "And I bet he doesn't want to say anything unless he gets an attorney."

Alex sighs and agrees. Supergirl paces up and down the hall. One can tell she's a bit wound high strung about this entire thing. Alex tries to convey to her sister that it's time to calm down and take things under control. She cannot bring herself to do it because of the simple reason she understands where Kara's coming from right now. Plus, the after effects of whatever that drug is, she's not herself right now, even though she's getting there.

"It's going to be fine," Nightwing tells her.

Supergirl really wants to believe him. She swallows a lump building in her throat and turns her attention over towards Alex. "What about our guest at the end of the hallway? What's her story?"

"She was found in a terrible state."

"Likely because Sleez took out his aggression on her when we got away," Supergirl darkly says.

Alex flinches at the implications. This entire mess really does seem like a horror story for anyone who would be involved, with men and women alike being victimized by Sleez. She puts a hand against the wall and breaths a moment later.

"All she was able to say was Supergirl. And she was saying it repeatedly, and looking haunted when she did it. And given how nasty some of the bruises were on her, I think it's safe to say that we got her out in the right time. If we didn't get her out, you realize how bad it would have looked for you? If people took what she said the wrong way."

Funnily enough, Kara has a slight idea how bad things would have looked. She hates to admit it, but there were times where people lost their faith in heroes because of one incident or one incident where they convince themselves something bad happened. It came along with the territory where people may turn on a dime. Regardless of how much she understands it, she's not really too comfortable with the entire thing.

"I'd like to speak to Daggett."

Nightwing's voice cuts in. Alex raises an eyebrow at him and even Supergirl is a bit astonished and dare she say, a little bit shocked. Not too many people would want to speak to Daggett given the circumstances, and the DEO's been struggling to get anything out of him.

Regardless, Alex shrugs. "Hey, if you want to try and gets something out of him, then be my guest. You're going to be running your head into a wall."

Alex walks across the hallway and then presses a key to open the cell. Daggett looks up and comes face to face with the DEO Agent. She's not alone. Supergirl really doesn't bother Daggett. The person standing next to Supergirl on the other hand does.

"You," Daggett tells him.

"Yes, me," Nightwing tells him. "We're going to have a nice little chat, Daggett."

Nightwing lifts Daggett off the chair and Alex motions for them to go across the way to an area which they used for interrogation. Daggett tries to remain calm under the face of fire.

"Didn't think you need a cheerleader for interrogation," Daggett says with an eye on Supergirl. "And if I was a criminal, I'd be insulted. The best I mandate is the second string?"

"You're going to tell us everything," Nightwing says.

"I told these government goons, until I have an attorney, you're not getting anything from me. It's my constitutional right."

Alex grabs Daggett across the back of the head and slams him head first into the table. Daggett grimaces when Alex presses her hand against the back of his head while rubbing him against the table.

"Fine, you don't want to talk to me, you can talk to her," Nightwing tells Daggett. "I'm pretty sure she won't be as kind if you give me lip though."

"Oh, what the hell kind of operation is this?" Daggett asks.

"I don't know, you tell me," Alex tells him. "You're responsible for victimizing runaways! You're selling them to some monster as slaves. Why? What do you have to gain?"

"What's the one thing that makes the world go around?" Daggett manages.

Alex knows the answer right away and it does not improve her mindsight. Money, it's all because of money. She lets Daggett up and gives him a chance to breath. Daggett stands up slightly shaken, but he maintains some kind of composure.

"I'm going to get you all thrown into prison for violating my rights. You won't get away with this."

"When you started working with Sleez, you crossed the line from your usual brand of illegal activities into terrorism," Nightwing tells him. "It's not that Sleez cares about you. You're a means to an end. He would have chewed you up and spit you out if they would not have picked you up. But, you didn't think about that. You just thought about all of the money you could make."

"He's producing a sex drug," Daggett tells him.

"It's more than that and you know it," Alex answers. "What is he planning?"

"He just wanted people, intelligence, and facilities," Daggett tells them. "That's all I know, and I swear, once I get out of here, I'm going to put you under a bridge. Do you hear me?"

"I hear you," Alex tells him. "But, you're not going to see the light of day. Not if I can help it."

"Besides, your boy Bell's going to tell us everything anyway," Nightwing tells him.

"Bell, he better not tell you anything!" Daggett snaps and he looks very worried right now. "After all I've done for that bastard, he better not betray me. He better now tell you anything."

"He knows about the facility," Nightwing tells him.

"He doesn't know shit about the facility that I bought after Falcone bit it!" Daggett yells.

Nightwing smiles, and Daggett realizes just how much he screwed up. Nightwing and Alex walk Daggett back into his cell and then drops him down into it. There's only one facility in National City which the Falcones owned and now they have a pretty good idea what to do next. It would have the capabilities to mass produce the drug.

"It's right outside of the slums," Dick tells Alex. "And my associate already has sent the necessary information to the DEO."

"Dare I ask how she's gotten on our network?" Alex asks.

A smile just comes over Nightwing which makes Alex realize she's not getting any kind of straight answer. "You have some potential. If I ever want a partner, I'll look you up."

"I'm flattered, but not interested in the moment," Alex answers. "Besides, I think Kara's already filled that role very nicely."

Alex exchanges a knowing smile with her sister before walking off, leaving Kara quite baffled at her sisters words.

* * *

Supergirl and Nightwing walk away from Daggett. Kara stops at the room where the battered girl is being held. Her eyes widen in horror before backing off and slumping against the wall. It breaks Kara's heart to see someone this bad off. She leans in and tries to offer the girl some level of comfort. Unfortunately, at this moment, the comfort is not happening any time soon.

"So, I suppose we should talk about what happened," Kara tells him. "Because, I was way out of line there. I could have hurt you or worse."

"It's fine," Dick tells her. "Put the blame on the person who did this to you, not on yourself."

"You're taking this pretty well," Kara tells him.

"Well, you're going to be fine," Dick tells her. "I….I was tempted out there, but I know that neither of us were in the position for something to happen."

"Oh, you were tempted?" Kara asks. "I really was…well I was…that wasn't appropriate behavior you know?"

Kara cannot say she's displeased about the fact that he saw her as desirable and was tempted to do take a more hands on approach in helping her sweat out the drug. Which is something she suggested to be perfectly honest, but she pushes those thoughts down to the back of her head.

"It's the second worst struggle that I've had to keep myself under control."

Curiosity visits Kara. "So, if that's the second worst time, what was the first?"

A smile crosses Dick's face as he goes down a trip down memory lane. "A teammate of mine and her sister, they got into a super powered catfight. I know it's shocking that it ended up in the mud with most of their clothes ripped off. They were a sight to look at."

Kara raises an eyebrow for a second.

"Tamarian," Dick simply says.

That really does explain everything as far as Kara's concerned. She takes a moment to put her hand on his shoulder, perhaps on instinct. She moves it away quickly, acting like the gesture is not done. She keeps him at arm's length regardless of the fact.

"I'm almost disappointed you couldn't control yourself," she tells him. "I would have been up for a lot of things I don't have the guts to do normally. But, I've always wanted to do, I guess."

"RedK only removes inhibitions, it doesn't….." Dick tells her. "I see."

"Yes, you may," Kara says before she grows somber. "I'm really worried what that drug is going to do to anyone else. I couldn't even fight it off. What happens to normal people on the street when they're given the drug?"

Every thought of what could happen sickens Kara to the pit of her stomach. Dick puts a hand on her shoulder and does not abruptly remove it like Kara does earlier. She relaxes underneath his touch.

"It's not going to go to the streets," Dick tells her. "It's not going to flood National City or anyone else. Not if I can help it anyway."

His watch blipped and Dick pulls his hand away to see the information Oracle dug up.

"We have a lead," Dick tells her. "Why don't we say we get a head start?"

The DEO's likely to have the same information. Kara closes her eyes for a second and focuses on what she has to do. There's most certainly a few temptations still in her mind, even after the drug's been purged in her situation. She fears it may have opened up a door in her mind which cannot completely shut.

' _If I'm still like this, then we can't let it be out on the street.'_

She sets her jaw in confident resolve. "Let's go."

* * *

The group of runaways all crowd around showing some level of fear. A couple of their number were missing and they fear what might have happened. They were all ushered into a back of a truck and moved off along with the rest of the materials Sleez has.

"Man, something rotten is going on," one of the boys whispers.

The other members of the group all look at him like he's insane. None of them have any confidence to speak up now. This home is the only one many of them know, and they feel like they do not have any restrictions here. There's no strings which hold them back.

"Good evening."

Everyone looks up the stage at Sleez who walks up to them. They all stand not being the one to release the pin from the grenade which will cause an explosion. Sleez sweeps his eyes down the stage to them.

"Remember the one thing I've been telling you time and time again. No matter what anyone else says, you're not wanted out there. You have been written off as society's mistakes. You are runaways. You are addicts who society will not understand. You will be buried in the system. You are blamed for society's ills. But, you are not the problem."

The entire group turns their attention to Sleez. Even the two or three individuals who have their misgivings listen to him. His voice enraptures them so much.

"We are here and we are family," Sleez informs them. "And there are those who are willing to break apart our perfect lives and ruin our perfect family."

There's growing discontent. One of the girls staggers back with a look of fear on her face. This was home and someone tries to ruin it for her. She cannot even fathom such a thing occurring.

"Those monsters Supergirl and Nightwing, they want to destroy your perfect life. They want to destroy your home. These two want to rip apart our family."

"No!" they yell.

"I'm sorry to say they are," Sleez says. "But, family sticks together. Family stands by their father and makes sure he's not victimized by those trying to take his children away. And you are all my children. Where else would you be? Where else would you go?"

They have nowhere to go.

"Arm yourselves and defend your home," Sleez tells them. "I will return shortly to give you further direction."

Sleez passes through the doors of the warehouse. He takes about eight or nine further steps before picking up the Motherbox on the table. He presses a button and opens up a portal.

"Granny Goodness, I wish to speak to you."

"Oh, it's you."

Those words come rather sharply at Sleez. Granny Goodness, one of the top followers of Darkseid, speaks to Sleez like he's nothing other than a slug on the bottom of my boot.

"It works," Sleez tells her. "My drug works on Kryptonians."

"Yes, very well, you tell me, but you do not show me," Granny tells him. "I'm going to need proof."

"I can hand deliver you a completely docile and obedient Superman to do with as you wish."

Granny smacks her lips with delight. "That sounds delicious. I must admit, you do raise a very tantalizing prospect. Perhaps you are not as useless as I previously thought."

Sleez takes the back handed compliment because it was the only one the likes of Granny Goodness would give him.

"I'm going to need your assistance though," Sleez says. "Supergirl is closing in and I need something to tip the scale, if I'm going to defeat either her or her cousin."

Silence passes as Granny considers the options she has before answering Sleez.

"Very well, I will give you some help."

Sleez prepares to receive a small army of Female Furies to protect his interest. Instead, a small black box slips out of the portal. Sleez stoops down to grab it and opens it up to reveal a shining gauntlet. He expects more help than this for many reasons.

"It's one of the most powerful weapons I can spare. And the next time you contact me, I want Superman as promised. And I will not say no to a Supergirl being thrown in as well. My hounds need a new plaything."

Granny's sadistic voice cuts out as Sleez studies the gauntlet in his hand. If it's powerful as she says, well then Sleez prepares to arm one of his minions with it.

"My dear, if you would."

* * *

The old Falcone factory has several boards over the entrance. The further Supergirl and Nightwing step inside, the more they realize the factory has most certainly been used for something. The smell of chemicals doubles Supergirl over.

A figure moves in behind them. Nightwing spins around and comes inches away from smacking Alex directly in the face. Alex throws her hands up to show Nightwing it's her.

"Okay, I should know better than to sneak up on someone from Gotham," Alex says. "I'm heading inside with you two to take a look around. The others are searching the loading area and a cave underneath the docks."

A smell of sewage becomes prominent mixed in the chemicals. Kara tries to listen for something. She hears the motor of an air conditioner running heavily. Someone has been here recently or someone forgot to shut their air conditioner off.

"This way," Kara says. "There's someone in that office or at least there was."

They enter an office. Alex walks over to a cup of coffee on the desk and sticks her finger in it.

"Still hot," Alex tells them. "Someone's been here, they might have walked out the back door just as we came in or something."

Dick surveys the office. There's filing cabinets, way too many and way too numerous to go through right now. The item on the back wall catches his interest. He pulls back a blue curtain to reveal a map of National City. This catches the interest of both Kara and Alex as they look over on the map.

The warehouse is smack dab in the middle and there's several lines. Beneath, there's an overlay of the National City sewer system.

"That explains the sewage I smelled when I got in here," Kara tells them. "But, what are they doing down there?"

"It's fiendishly clever."

Everything hits Dick completely at once.

"So, they're going to put it in the water, right?" Alex asks.

"Yes, a small sample where people will develop a taste for the drug," Dick tells her. "And then, Sleez and his agents are going to sell a drug at a premium after most of the city's gotten a taste. And then, he's going to use that money to spread it out."

"That's…doesn't he realize the consequences?" Alex asks.

Kara grimly nods. "He's fully aware of what's going to happen. We need to stop him and we need to find him…there has to be a way down here through the sewers."

Supergirl hovers over the stairs and attempts to use her X-Ray vision to try and find something, anything out. She puts a hand to the top of her head and stops.

"Lead," she groans. "Of course.

"Well, then they're obviously hiding something if they lined the building with led," Alex tells them. "I'm going to have to call the rest of the team in to…."

"No," Nightwing tells her. "I'll take a closer look."

He slips on a pair of goggles and presses a button. It scans the floor with Dick looking for the greatest cluster of footprints. It's going to need man power to get that much down there. It took about two minutes of searching before the crime fighter is able to isolate what he's looking for.

"There's a water heater in the basement," Dick says. "Only, I don't think it does anything. There's a secret entrance back there and…."

Kara zips off in one direction much to the agitation of her sister. Alex answers with a very obvious shrug and decides to follow Kara down the basement.

"We really should stick together," Dick says to no one in particular.

Nightwing slips down to the ground. He realizes he's not alone. Rather a small army of well-armed teenagers and young adults follow up to him.

"It's him, it's Nightwing!"

"Please, no autographs," Nightwing tells them with a smile. "In all seriousness, just put the weapons down and we can talk. You've been through a pretty bad time, and I can help you. But only if you let me help you. So help me help you help…."

"He's trying to rip our family apart!"

A grenade blasts out of the hand of the nearest teenager soldier. Nightwing dodges out of the way with a small explosion connecting to the ground.

"Okay, I really did want to do this the easy way. Hard way, it always has to be the hard way."

* * *

The voices grew louder the closer Supergirl got to the sewers. And the smell, oh it's hard not to even think of the smell. She almost gags when going through the sewer tunnels. Carefully, Supergirl hovers over to the ground to avoid stepping in something in something that she does not want all over her boot.

"Have any of you heard from Daggett?"

"Hey, as long as the money keeps going in my bank account, he doesn't have to talk to me. And so far, he's not been late for a payment. Man pays well, even though I wouldn't invite him over for dinner."

"Don't know why he wants us to pump this stuff into the sewer. I mean, that's some real Scarecrow level shit here. And these tanks are as heavy AF."

"You're so lazy you have to abbreviate your Mfing swears. Are you for real?"

Supergirl catches a glimpse of the tanks full of the drugs. She realizes of a quick and efficient way to deal with these guys. She grabs onto a pipe and undoes it to release a jet of steam into the area.

"What the hell is that?"

Supergirl zips to them and takes them out one by one. None of Daggett's men have an opportunity to defend themselves against the ongoing blitz of the Girl of Steel. She pulls back from them and allows them to drop to the ground.

She repairs the pipe and heads over to take care of the tanks. They are on some kind of timer which Kara fears might be an automatic release to pump it into the sewer. And the vents above would also pump it into the air if it becomes gaseous.

A white blast of light cuts through the air and slams Supergirl into the sewer wall. She smacks against the wall as hard as possible.

"I'm going to pay you pay!"

An eighteen-year-old girl pops out of the shadows and for the second time in many days, it's the girl Supergirl's been searching for.

"Angie?" Supergirl asks. "Angie, it's me, it's Supergirl!"

"I know who you are, you filthy alien!" she yells. "You've destroyed my life and now I'm going to end yours."

"Sleez is in your mind, he's making you do this," Supergirl says. "Angie, please! I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU!"

"Sorry, bitch, but I want to hurt you!"

Another blast burns Kara's cape. She has to fling it off to avoid the burns from spreading to the rest of her body. It quickly connects with her that she's dealing with a weapon which is designed with Kryptonians in mind. She ducks and rolls before landing on her feet to avoid the next blast.

* * *

 **To Be Continued on May 9** **th** **, 2018.**

* * *

 **Thanks for all of the favorites, follows, kudos, views, and comments and I'll see you next Wednesday for the next chapter**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven:**

* * *

Fighting an army of brainwashed teenagers, well it's not the first time Nightwing's done this. It always has to be done with a velvet glove. They all charge him one by one. Nightwing ducks one of the attacks and returns to take him down to the ground.

"I know you've all had a bad time. I'm not your enemy."

The armor blocks him of another attack. Nightwing grabs the teenager around the arm and restrains him down to the ground. He comes on top and lightly presses down onto the shoulder joint to take him out. Just in time to come onto the business end of a glowing staff which shoots a beam of energy directly over the top of Nightwing's head and barely misses the wall.

Nightwing takes a deep breath. He finds solace in the fact that these teenagers are not trained soldiers. They divert, they annoy, they are not built for fight. Which is one of those good news, bad news type situations as far as Nightwing can tell.

The energy staff shoots up at the ceiling. A bombardment of energy knocks parts of the ceiling down. The debris showers them until Nightwing yanks them out of the way. One of them makes their way over to stab him from behind. Nightwing blocks his attack.

"No knives!" Nightwing yells. "You could hurt someone. Maybe yourself. Maybe me, but you could hurt someone."

Nightwing twists the attacker's arm behind his back and put a great deal of pressure on it. The attacker grimaces to the point where Dick forces him down by the elbow. The attacker's attempts to break out are fast and furious. Nightwing avoids the attack and grapnels up to above.

They lost track of him which allows Nightwing a perfect vantage point to pick them up on the shadows. One walks up and Nightwing hoists him up. This gives him a little shock, and does not hurt him. Nightwing descends down and then puts his hand on the young man's shoulder.

The two other youths, a boy and a girl, shine flashlights into the alcove. Nightwing slips away and moves behind them. He's now on the rafters and a spotlight shines on them. The two youths step back and stagger. One of them tries to release a blinding flare into the shadows.

Nightwing comes down and grabs his adversary's arm before flipping him down onto the ground. The Crime Fighter holds the attacker's arm and turns it with a slight twist before flipping over and kneeing his opponent in the side of the neck.

The final attacker is not willing to go down without a fight. Nightwing knows there might be more outside. He hears footsteps from up the steps and the attacker turns around just in time for Alex Danvers to roll a grenade on the ground. The grenade breaks open and the gas blinds the attacker. Nightwing decides to send a small electric pulse through the boy's shoulder and drop him to the ground.

"Where…where I am?" he asks.

"You don't remember attacking me?" Nightwing asks.

"Should I?" he asks before shuddering. "Oh, I've got a killer headache."

Alex slips over to join Nightwing. "I've got four more downstairs like this."

"Electricity, that's the thing that brings them back to normal," Nightwing says. "So, where did your sister go?"

"I moved to follow her and I got sidetracked when four of them jumped me," Alex says. "And there were a couple of Daggett goons involved too. I took care of them, but I lost sight of…."

Alex stops short when it clicks in her head. Nightwing smiles at her.

"You know who she is,' Alex says. "And you know that….how?"

"Well, it's obvious," Nightwing says. "You're either sisters or you're secret lesbian lovers. Granted, there's no reason why you can't be both, but…maybe I've spent too much time on a few of the seedier corners of the Internet for research purposes."

Alex raises her eyebrow, but wisely decides not to comment on that.

"Right," Alex says. "Research….but know I haven't seen her. She tore down the tunnel. We need to find out what tunnel she's gone down. I suppose you haven't slipped a tracking device on her."

"Earlier I did, but I took it off," Nightwing replies. "Which I kind of regret, but I didn't know…."

A loud sonic vibration rattles the ground. Nightwing moves over to the vent and dust kicks up out of it. Nightwing pulls up the vent and then sees a flash of something down below. It's hard to make out even with the light.

"She's down there," Nightwing tells her. "So…."

Alex gauges the leap. Thankfully there's a ledge halfway down although it looks pretty rickety. A couple more coming down so it will not blow her knees out when she drops down.

"I'll go first," Nightwing says. "It's perfectly safe."

Without any fear, he drops to one of the ledge and sticks a perfect flip on the other ledge on the way down. He hits the third ledge without any problems and then sticks the landing. Alex smiles and a grapnel hook with a sturdy rope shoots up.

She climbs down the rope. The walls rattle. Alex tries not to let this get to her as she slides down to join Nightwing and give her sister a hand.

* * *

Supergirl slumps against the wall from one of the attacks. Another attack like this could very well be the difference maker. Despite the pain, the immense pain, Supergirl rises to her feet. Angie stands over the top of her with a hand glowing.

"Angie, you were going to college. You have your entire future ahead of you. Don't do this to yourself."

"You're just afraid of me," Angie says. "People like you. They look down on the rest of the world, unable to see just how privileged they are."

"My entire planet died," Supergirl says. "How can you….."

"You didn't have to go through the same challenges I did!" Angie yells. "You're pretty! You're blonde! You have options. You could have anything. You've never gone through any adversity. I hate you and the privilege you have! It's awful!"

Angie fires a blast towards Supergirl. She's not going to take this comments personally because Sleez fuels all of Angie's misgiving towards her.

"You are going to burn, Girl of Steel! I'm going to rip you apart. Do you hear me? Your pretty little blonde white privilege is not going to get you far in life when Sleez rules the land."

"Sleez is using you," Supergirl protests.

The gauntlet fires at her and this time, Supergirl avoids the attack. It hits a pipe and releases steam to cloud the room. Supergirl zips behind Angie and grabs her around the waist. She tries to wrestle the gauntlet away from her. Angie screams like a banshee and shucks Supergirl off of her. She aims the gauntlet until a silver disc flies through the corner and connects with the gauntlet.

The gauntlet hisses, and Angie pulls it off of her before dropping it down to the ground. She reaches into her jacket and pulls out another weapon, a gun. She shoots the dark figure moving from the shadows. The figure grapnels the gun away from her.

"No!" Angie yells. "You're just like the rest of them. You can't do this to me!"

Angie jumps up with the knife in hand. Only to realize the figure in the shadows is completely gone. She turns around and charges Supergirl with the knife. Supergirl blocks the attack and restrains Angie to the ground. She struggles against the grip of Supergirl.

"KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF ME YOU ENTITLED CUNT!"

The shrieks and the attempts to get free are only louder. Angie breaks free only to run into Alex who is down the tunnel. She puts her gun on the tempered girl who is beyond not wanting to go down without a fight. Angie breaths in tightly, with Nightwing dropping down behind her and then catching her with a pulse of light against the spine. It shoots through her body and drops her down to the ground.

Angie collapses down to the ground. Nightwing restrains her with cuffs. This particular action causes Supergirl to raise an eyebrow.

"She could be a danger to herself and others. I'm making sure she isn't."

Supergirl answers with a nod, she understands. It would be best she wakes up from whatever happens in a controlled environment.

"A good shock undoes Sleez's brain washing, at least for the moment," Nightwing tells her. "But, we want to take down the man himself if you don't want him to go back in and reapply it."

A nod follows and Supergirl takes in a deep breath. Alex turns to both of the crime fighters. "I'll take her up with the others, and the DEO will haul them in and take care of them."

"Thanks," Supergirl says.

"Any time," Alex says.

Alex's departure leaves Sueprgirl and Nightwing alone in the tunnel. The two parties linger until Supergirl turns around and they head to the tanks which line up around the tunnel.

"I'm blocking the signal in them," Nightwing tells her. "It's a miracle that Sleez has not activated them yet."

"Believe me, I'm glad for miracles right now."

It's been a very stressful last couple of days. Nightwing moves over and undoes the tanks. He removes a vial from his belt while at the same time swiping the top of it. The scanner registers a match for the same drug which Sleez injects into Kara's system some time ago.

"Okay, I can negate it."

He adds a small drop from the vial to the liquid in each of the tanks. It starts to bubble and fizz before reducing into a fine powder. Nightwing scoops the powder out so he can safely dispose of it. He knows there is more of the drug.

"Want to do the honors of dismantling the tanks?" Nightwing asks.

"Gladly."

Controlled heat vision blasts annihilate the tanks. Supergirl cannot lie after all she's been through today, that felt good.

"National City Police Department's on their way to pick up Daggett's goons," Oracle tells Nightwing.

"Right, we still have one more loose end to tie up and this is going to be over."

* * *

Nightwing and Supergirl figure its best to meet back with the DEO. Alex folds her arms when looking at Supergirl. Kara hopes she's not going to get a lecture regarding her tendency to go off on her own. She has an apology about ready to go.

"Splitting up under these circumstances was really not the best idea," Nightwing tells them.

"Yeah, I agree," Supergirl says with a defeated sigh. "It's just this entire thing…Sleez really hurt them all. Not just physically, but emotionally."

Nightwing sighs. Mental scars are the ones which never truly fade away. Perhaps it's for the best these kids do not remember what Sleez has done to them. Although, Nightwing figures that not everything is going to be wrapped up in a nice package.

"We're currently grabbing hold of other Daggett facilities in the general area thanks to the tip your friend gave us," Alex says switching purely to business mode. "We've found some of the drugs, although obviously not all of them. Sleez, we haven't found him yet."

They fear Sleez may try and make a run for it and justice is never going to be served.

"We talked to some of them," Alex says. "They don't remember anything."

"That's…good and bad at the same time," Kara says.

"Agreed," Alex tells her sister with a nod. "It's good from a personal standpoint, but from a professional standpoint, well to be bluntly it kind of sucks."

"Just kind of?" Nightwing asks her.

"Fine," Alex says. "It rally sucks. It makes a criminal investigation really difficult. Especially considering Sleez is a dangerous alien terrorist and we want to bring him in by any means necessary."

"Is there any evidence?" Nightwing asks.

"Only the gauntlet," Alex says.

Nightwing motions for Alex to produce a box given the slightly damaged gauntlet that they removed from Angie. Alex complies and Dick opens it up. It's dented metal holds no knees. Kara slides back from the gauntlet and crinkles her nose something fierce. This makes Alex raise an eyebrow towards her sister.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to say anything, but that gauntlet smells heavily of fish."

"Fish?" Nightwing asks. "No…it can't be…it's impossible…."

Nightwing stops and thinks for a long minute. Conventional logic states that no one would bother to return to the scene of the crime. However, Nightwing puts himself into the mind of someone like Sleez. He's circled all the way around and returned to the first place where he met Supergirl and Nightwing. The place where he injected Supergirl with the drug the first time, he has to be there. It seems absurd which is what Sleez wants them to think.

"He's back to where he fought us the first time," Nightwing says.

Supergirl's eyebrows shoot up and she can hardly process half a thought. "Wouldn't he think that's the first place that we're going to look for him?"

"Well, you wouldn't think that he would go back there," Alex reminds her sister. "Therefore most people would not look for him there."

"Exactly," Nightwing says. "It's clever. Almost too clever."

"We'll get an army of DEO agents to him," Alex says. "He's not getting away this time."

"What if he's already on his way back home?" Supergirl asks. "You know back to Apokolips?"

"I don't think so," Nightwing says. "Something tells me Sleez isn't welcomed there."

Supergirl frowns, he must have done something pretty bad to be banished from a place like Apokolips. She wonders what they're going to do next. They have all of the drugs.

"Back me up," Supergirl says. "It's time to return the favor from earlier."

"I'm not sure about this," Alex tells her. "The last time you went up against him, he….well you know what he did."

Kara knows what he did, she will never forget it. She does have a plan to get in there. She rises up to her feet and then turns to Nightwing.

"So, do you think you can watch my back to make sure no one gets to me when I'm dealing with Sleez?" Supergirl asks. Alex opens her mouth. "I need your team to deal with any of the kids who might still be with Sleez."

It's a very important job, but Alex agrees to it. She really hopes Kara knows what she's doing. Then again, maybe Kara does this time. Perhaps she's learned her lesson from dealing with Sleez earlier.

* * *

Months of conditioning and hard work down the toilet. Sleez only has about two or three followers left and only a tiny sample of the drug after the DEO destroys most of it. His entire plan goes up in flames and Sleez grits his teeth in sheer frustration.

"No. I'm not going to give up this easily."

Sleez knows that the DEO is coming, Supergirl and Nighwing are coming, and knowing his luck, there might be other problems. Sleez moves across the room to grab the Motherbox and then press the button. Sleez peers at Granny Goodness through the gateway. Contempt is not spared in the slightest for Sleez.

"Yes?"

"I need more help," Sleez says.

"How can dear Granny help you, if you cannot help yourself?"

Her voice sounds sweet, but there's an undercurrent of something else within it. Sleez curls his hand against the edge of the door and sucks in a couple of sharp breaths. Its very hard for him to concentrate.

"You promised me a Superman to play with and to break as I saw fit. And yet, I see you full of empty promises. You have powers of a god, and yet you use them for petty endeavors. As far as I'm concerned, you're dead to me. Best of luck getting yourself out of this mess, pumpkin."

Granny's voice takes a turn for the savage and the connection drops off.

"You can't do this to me!"

She obviously can and obviously has. The transmission seals shut to leave Sleez all alone. He holds the Motherbox for about ten seconds before hurling it across the room. What's worse is he has no one to take his aggressions out on this time.

The glass shatters above Sleez's head. His situation's gone from bad to worse as Supergirl turns up. She spares him no smile. Sleez reaches over to the shelf to arm himself with an energy rod.

"It's over!" Supergirl yells. "I'm taking you down personally."

She charges Sleez. The blast from the energy rod cuts through the air and almost connects with Supergirl. She avoids three blasts with the rod cutting through the air. The Girl of Steel flies around in circles to avoid the rod as it closes in on her.

"YOU WON'T RUIN MY PLAN!" Sleez howls at the top of his lungs. "I WON'T LET YOU DO IT! Do you hear me, Supergirl?"

Supergirl's hands snap over and grab the energy rod. The two of them fight with the rod with Supergirl snapping up high into the air. She comes crashing down onto the back of Sleez's head to drive him back. Repeating punches keep slamming into the point of Sleez's jaw. He doubles over in sheer agony before shooting back up and charging Supergirl once more.

He's not a fighter, not at all, and Supergirl exploits him by flipping him. He resembles a particularly grotesque bouncy ball when slamming off of the table. Sleez pulls himself back up and Supergirl nails him in the head with a kick which sends him flying through the wall.

Sleez reaches for a syringe containing the last of the drug. Only for Supergirl to stomp his arm and kick him in the face.

"You're not going to victimize anyone! EVER! AGAIN!"

She punches him three times with equal punch. Sleez's thick blubbery skin absorbs some of the impact. He bents down and throws a grenade from the box. Supergirl punches the grenade and there's an explosion. Choking clouds of dust kick through the air.

Sleez charges to the back entrance of the door. His heart stammers a couple of beats the closer he gets to the door. The DEO meets him at the front door.

"I suggest you surrender," Henshaw tells him.

Sleez blasts open a window and jumps out of it. He runs as fast as his rotund frame can carry him, only to run into an explosive mine which drops him back to the ground.

"Yeah," Nightwing tells him. "That's predictable."

Nightwing sends the energy staff he borrowed from the DEO's confiscated weapons storage and jabs it into Sleez's chest. Sleez shakes madly and pulls away. He jabs a weapon at Nightwing's throat. He gets completely out of the way and then moves around to sleep Sleez's ankles out from underneath him just as Supergirl flies from the heavens and kicks him in the face.

The weeble-wobble shaped man drops down to the ground. Restraint cuffs slap around his wrist. The DEO swarms and brings a sputtering Sleez up to his feet.

"NO!" Sleez yells. "I'LL GET YOU! IF IT'S THE LAST THING YOU DO!"

"If only I had a nickel for every time I've heard a criminal say that," Nightwing says.

Supergirl flashes a smile towards him. "I know, right?"

* * *

Another mission successfully wraps up. Nightwing perches on a gargoyle and looks over National City. It's most certainly an interesting change from what he's used to whether it be in Gotham City or Bludhaven. And yet, there's no shortage of excitement and adventure. Nightwing pops his legs back and senses someone standing behind him.

"Mind if I join you?" Supergirl asks him.

"Feel free," Nightwing says. "So Sleez is locked up tight?"

Supergirl confirms with a nod. "Yeah, his drugs, weapons, and he's in the DEO custody. He's going to be put away for a very long time unless someone from his home comes for him. And I somehow think no one is going to come for him."

Nightwing has to agree. This has been interesting night to be honest.

"And Kara Danvers has a hell of a story to write about how the drug and slave trafficking ring just got busted by Supergirl and Nightwing," he says.

"She does," Supergirl agrees. "Um…listen, there were some things that I said when I was under the influence, and I really can't say…well….."

Nightwing puts a hand on her shoulder and Supergirl smiles.

"I know there were circumstances that caused you to say things that you might not normally say in polite company,' Nightwing gently tells her. "Even though I'm not sure how much I would be considered polite company to be perfectly honest."

Supergirl laughs at him.

"Thanks for helping me get back in my right mind again and making sure I didn't do something that I would regret," Supergirl says. "Granted, it's something that…well never mind."

Nightwing gives her a knowing smile as the sheepish look spreads against her face. She sighs and brushes a lock of hair away from her face.

"Thanks for your help."

"Anytime."

Supergirl spends about ten seconds considering what to do next. She decides to wrap her arm around him and pull Nightwing into an extremely passionate kiss. He is quick on the draw and returns it.

The two pull away from each other.

"There's a train about ready to run off the tracks. See you again sometime."

Supergirl jumps up into the sky with Nightwing watching her until she becomes a dot in the distance.

"We will indeed, Ms. Danvers. We will indeed."

* * *

 **To Be Concluded on May 16** **th** **, 2018.**

* * *

 **Thanks for the favorites, follows, kudos, views, and comments and I'll see you next Wednesday for the final chapter.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight:**

* * *

The aftermath of locking Sleez up and saving those children puts an added spring in Kara's step. Supergirl moves around National City for a very quiet and uneventful evening. Especially when one stacks them up to the last several evenings, and especially last night, it will be a long time before Kara forgets what happened last night.

A car pulls up at National City General. Kara loops around and drops down from the sky. She notices Lana getting out of the car and Lana notices her. A smile crosses over Lana's face.

"I'm just glad everything came out okay," Lana says. "You're doing fine?"

"I am now," Kara answers.

It could have gone so much worse had Kara not had someone to help keep her head in line. Red Kryptonite, especially when in combination with Sleez's drug, does some not so wonderful things to Kara's psyche. It brings out the darker, more primal side of her. And maybe it allows Kara to be a bit too honest with her feelings and desires, even though she squashes that thought firmly down to the back of her mind where it belongs.

"I'm here to check up on Angie," Lana informs Kara. "I'm guessing you're here to do the same."

"Yep," Kara tells her with a sad smile. "I'm guessing she's no longer screaming for my head."

Lana just gives Kara a sad smile. "Yeah, well I'm not sure. The doctors say she should make a full physical recovery. Mentally on the other hand, that's another thing."

It's a very sad statement and yet it's ultimately true. Kara gives a soft smile in response to her friend.

"I'm just worried whether or not this will shift back the progress she's made," Lana says. "She was on her way to college and I think she finally broke away from her troubled past. But now, I don't know."

"You have to have faith that people will drag themselves out of their darkest moments," Kara says.

"Clark said the same thing," Lana says. "So, are you going to see her?"

"I might want to," Kara says. "I thought about dropping in through the window, but I think that attracts a little bit too much attention."

"So, you're just going to walk in wearing your full Supergirl uniform?" Lana asks. "Makes perfect sense to me."

Kara shrugs and the two make their way to the front desk. A sleepy receptionist and a trio of security guards are the first people they see when entering the building. The receptionist looks up from the desk with a yawn.

"Ms. Lang," the receptionist says before her eyes shift over. "Supergirl."

It's the most nonchalant statement possible.

"We're here to see Angela Beaumont," Lana says.

"Of course, she's currently up and watching television," the receptionist says. "Leroy, lead these ladies to Ms. Beaumont's room."

A stout older gentlemen nods and leads the two women across to the elevator and up to the third floor. Leroy turns around.

"I want to have a word with you, Supergirl," Leroy says in a thick Southern accent. "There's something I want to say to you for a long time."

Lana frowns, this might not bode well, but to her credit, Supergirl remains cool under the face of pressure.

"Yes?" Kara asks.

"You were the one who saved that train that was about to run off the tracks. The one that was sabotaged by them damn Intergang people. Well, my sister just happens to be on the train, and you saved her life. I tell you something, I don't think you get enough credit for what you do. You're alright Supergirl, thank you."

"I do what I can do to help," Supergirl says.

"Well, if more people did what they can do to help and stopped bitching about the problems over the Internet, and calling everyone who disagreed with them a God damn Nazi, the world would be a better place."

"Yeah," Supergirl agrees.

"Poor kid up there, she's been through a lot," Leroy says. "People like that Sleez, he gives y'all a bad name. Aliens, I mean."

"He really does."

The two women make their way to the room. Lana and Kara step into the room. Angela's eyes flicker towards the television screen. She watches the news, but really does not watching the news.

"I'm really sorry," Angie tells them. "I'm a real mess. I….I should be locked up for what I did. Maybe I'll stop hurting myself and others."

"None of this is your fault," Kara says.

Angie's eyes flicker, not really paying the Girl of Steel much mind.

"It's your job to say that," Angie says. "You don't have bad days, I mean people like you, don't have bad days."

"Yeah, I've had a few," Kara firmly says. "But it doesn't matter how bad the day is. It matters what you do from here."

"You've come a long way," Lana says.

"You're too good to us, Ms. Lang," Angie says. "People would have given up on a fuck-up like me a long time ago."

Angie thought about ending it all out of shame. Maybe she's too much a coward to do so, or perhaps there are other reasons. She remembers everything Sleez did to her, and she feels used and dirty.

"Giving up is not an option, not when there's people to be helped," Kara says. "And I don't think you should give up either. It's not going to be easy, but take things one day at a time."

"I'm just tired of it all," Angie says.

Kara gives her a sympathetic smile. She's going through a delicate time. A time where Angie feels that everything bad in her life is her fault. Kara's been down that dark road before. It's not pleasant to go down.

* * *

The weapon sits in front of Lena Luthor on the table. She's going to have to get it dismantled because such a dangerous weapon being allowed out in the open is not a good idea. She taps her hand on the side of the weapon and frowns.

"It's a small miracle it isn't properly deployed."

Right on schedule, Kara Danvers steps inside of the office. Lena greets her with a smile and a hug before the two of them part ways.

"I have the weapon that Sleez stole from Cadmus to try and use on Supergirl," Lena answers. "And it's remarkable and nasty even though I'm not sure Sleez really knew what he had in his hand. Then again, according to the reports, the drugs were nasty. Especially when Supergirl was injected with one of them."

A knowing smile passes over Lena's face. She cannot very well acknowledge what she knows to Kara because despite her best efforts, the walls do have ears every now and then. It has been commonly accepted by both of them Lena knows and Kara knows that she knows. And Lena understands Kara's reasons for keeping it a secret and would unfortunately do the same thing, should she have family worth protecting.

"My mother is a genius," Lena says with regret. "That's something that makes this more frustrating. She could have gone about saving the world by curing the ill and feeding the hungry. Instead, she chases aliens."

Then again, Lex had the same problem. He had the intellect to cure many of the world's deadliest diseases ten times over and make world hunger obsolete. Yet, he spends time on his fixation and suddenly, he's spending the rest of his life rotting behind bars.

"You can lead by example," Kara tells her.

"I try," Lena informs her. "It's not easy being a Luthor."

Boy wasn't that ever the truth.

"Ms. Luthor, your visitor is here to see you."

"Send him in," Lena says. Her smile brightens. "Well, Mr. Grayson, this is a pleasant surprise."

"Hello, Ms. Luthor," Dick says. "And we meet again, Ms. Danvers."

"Hello," Kara says.

Dick decides to enter the purely business mode by crossing the office and putting a stack of papers on the desk in front of Lena. "Mr. Fox asked me to do him a favor and drop these off to see if they're to your liking."

Lena takes up the papers and flips through them. She nods and looks pleased with what she's reading.

"Yes, that's to my liking, thank you," Lena tells him. "I'm sure Wayne Industries and L-Corp going together on this venture will both change the world and rattle a few cages."

Given how much distaste Lillian Luthor has for Bruce Wayne, who is not shy about his advocacy for alien rights, Lena can't help and smile at this. She smiles, drops the paper, and adds her signature to them to make it official. No sooner did she sign the papers, her phone rings.

"I have to take this call," Lena says a moment later. "I'll leave the two of you in my office, unsupervised. I'm sure I can trust you."

Lena leaves the office and leaves Dick and Kara standing alone in Lena's office.

"So, I'm going to be in National City for a couple more days," Dick says. "Would you care to join me for dinner tonight? So we can get a chance to know each other…outside of the capes I mean."

Kara nervously chews down on her lip. Dating, that's really not really a thing she has done for a long time.

"A date?" Kara asks him. "Are you sure about this? I mean, my dates have a nasty habit of ending abruptly when something comes up."

Dick gives her a smile. "That's something that I have in common with you. Happens to me way too much often."

It could be the main reason why Dick only dates people he works on the field with. Granted, that causes its own set of complications of something happening in the relationship effecting the work on the field.

"I want to ask you a question, about Nightwing. Does it have anything to do about the legend on Krypton or is it just a coincidence you have that name?"

"I'll see you at dinner," Dick tells her. "If you wish."

"Well, I could get out more often," Kara says. "It's a date."

He takes Kara's hand and kisses it. Smoothly and quickly, Dick moves out to meet Lena who is currently coming back down to the elevator.

* * *

Kara figures it would be best to swing by the DEO. She does not have to move too far through the building before she runs across Alex who is busy looking over a couple of things.

"So, how are things?" Kara asks.

Alex is about ready to ask Kara the same question. However, she decides to indulge her sister. "Well, the weapons have been secured, and Sleez is locked up. Daggett's….I'm not sure what we're going to do to him. We can't hold him forever…then again, we have a similar problem with Mannheim."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Kara says. "But, seriously, I'm glad everything's going well for once in our lives."

Alex raises an eyebrow and notices Kara is smiling and in general good spirts. It's hard not to smile due to Kara's fun loving nature and the fact she's in a good mood.

"I have a date," Kara tells Alex. "And it's with Dick Grayson."

A smile pops over Alex's face wider than ever before. "Oh, that's great. I'm so happy for your Kara and it's about time. You know, he's pretty easy on the eyes."

"Wait, I thought you didn't…."

Alex shakes her head with her smile growing. "Hey. Just because I prefer girls, doesn't mean I can't see if a guy is physically attractive. And I can see that he's physically attractive and I can see it too. I think it's about time for you to try out the dating thing again."

"Yeah, I think it is," Kara responds with a sigh.

They were dancing around the very obvious elephant in the room about how Kara's dating life tends to have a very checkered history.

"And you two have a lot in common given the large shadows you live in," Alex tells her sister. "I'm sure that you're going to have a great time. And remember, the world's not going to end because Supergirl takes a night off to go on a date."

"Yeah, I wouldn't tempt fate by admitting that," Kara says with a strained smile.

"And you should invite him back for coffee afterwards," Alex says.

"Couldn't we just go out for coffee?" Kara asks.

A raised eyebrow comes from the older sister. "When I say coffee…I mean…coffee with extra cream."

It takes Kara approximately ten seconds to get where Alex is coming from. Her mouth opens up wide in an "O" shape and she ducks her head for a second to break out into laughter.

"Are you trying to say…."

"I'm trying to say that life goes on," Alex says. "You should live it while you can. Today could have ended badly for a lot of us."

"I know what you're suggesting," Kara says. "And that seems a bit bold…even though when I was drugged, I was trying to rip his clothes off and if I let me I would have….."

"Fucked his brains out," Alex blandly suggests.

"Alex!" Kara yells.

"It's true and you know it's true," Alex says. "And you can say it's the Red Kryptonite talking all you want. You and I both know that that only removes the PC filter."

"Right," Kara says. "So, I'm going on a date, with Dick Grayson."

"You are," Alex agrees. "And I'm really happy for you. This is long overdue for you. Good luck."

"Why do I have a feeling I'm going to need it?" Kara asks.

She hopes not to be socially awkward and bumble this up.

* * *

Dick smiles and waits at the edge of the door. Kara makes her way in and wears a nice blue dress which fits on her nicely.

"You look beautiful," Dick tells her.

Kara opens her mouth when looking at Dick. Some of the old feelings start to flow to the surface. At least this time it verifies she's not just feeling things thanks to being dosed by the Red Kryptonite.

"You don't look too bad yourself," Kara manages.

"I try."

She wishes she's more relaxed. Dick reaches over and takes her by the arm. They move across the restaurant and then move to a private booth.

"When you name drop Bruce Wayne, you get moved to the front of the line," Dick says. "Of course, I don't make a habit of doing that for anyone."

"I'm honored," Kara tells him. "Sorry if I'm….it's been a long time since I've done this…the date thing I mean, it's been…well my last relationship…"

Kara sighs, it has been a few years, so she's most certainly gotten past the hurt there. And time heals all of the wounds possible.

"Bad break up?" Dick asks.

"It's complicated."

Time for Kara to move on though.

"I've been through those before," Dick answers in a somber voice. "And the things that shouldn't upset us, upset the most. The heart is strange like that. Emotions are always a tricky thing."

Kara wonders what the story is behind that, but knows better not to press.

"I'm really glad though that I'm back on the horse," Kara says. "Because, I'm ready to ride it through to the end..."

She trails off when realizing how wrong that could sound out of context. Kara takes in a deep breath.

"So, you grew up in the Circus?" Kara asks.

"Yes, before my parents died," Dick tells her.

"Sorry for bringing that up," Kara says.

"No, don't be, there were a lot of good people in that Circus, I still keep in touch with some friends," Dick tells her. "And besides, you have to remember where you came from even though it's painful to."

"Right," Kara agrees. "I like the Circus, but….I'll be perfectly honest, I don't really like clowns."

A dark smile appears over Dick's face. "Don't worry. I don't like clowns that much either. Too many bad experiences. Well, not with clowns in general. Just a clown."

Food and drinks come through the table. Kara smiles when she takes a bite into the food. There's so many thoughts that enter her mind.

"Are you okay after what happened?" Dick asks.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Kara says. "I guess though it brought some things into mind. I'm so repressed right now, it just came out."

"Maybe we can get you to loosen up a little bit," Dick says with a smile. "How about a dance?"

"I don't know," Kara says. "I mean, I'm not the best dancer."

"Well, you don't have to be as long as you're having fun."

Kara concedes he does have a point and takes the arm when offered to move out onto the dance floor. The two wrap their arms around each other when dancing. The music kicks a steady beat when Dick turns Kara and almost dips her down to the floor.

"So the Nightwing thing?" Kara asks her.

"Your cousin told me the story," Dick tells her with a smile. "It was a long time ago, but when I decided to move out of the Cave and into Bludhaven, I wanted to make a clean break. And Nightwing seemed like a pretty good name."

"It's a great name," Kara tells her. "I sometimes wish I had not been dubbed Supergirl by Cat. I mean, I'm not sure if Superwoman is a better name either, because it just…it's hard to escape that stigma of being compared to him. And he's great, Kal's great, a bit milktoast, but great. He's the boyscout to end all boyscouts, but still."

"Well, I'm sure if you really want, you can rebrand yourself," Dick says. "But, Supergirl is a symbol of hope for many people. Robin on the other hand, is Batman's dorky teen sidekick who wears stupid pixie boots."

"Holy bad fashion choice!" Kara exclaims.

Dick gives her a narrowed eyed expression which causes Kara to give her a sheepish grin.

"So, do you want to come back to my place for coffee?" Kara blurts out.

"Mmm, coffee," Dick tells her. "Yes, coffee is great. So are you the type of girl who likes extra cream in her coffee?"

"Loads!" Kara explains. "I mean…well…yeah, I guess."

"I prefer honey," Dick tells her with a knowing smile.

He dips Kara back onto the dance floor and gives her another kiss. Kara wraps her arms around Dick and deepens the kiss. His hand slides up her leg and Kara grabs it to slide it further up.

Unfortunately, an alarm comes up from across the street. Kara breaks free and sees that there are masked men inside of a hotel lobby across the street. Several of the occupants kneel down on the floor and there appears to be a bomb.

Kara turns to Dick, but he smiles and slips into the shadows.

About a minute later, Nightwing and Supergirl suit up and prepare to take care of a hostage crisis.

"Sorry, coffee is going to have to wait," Supergirl says.

"Well, it always tastes better after your adrenaline is worked up," Nightwing tells her.

* * *

 **End.**

* * *

 **Thanks for all of the favorites, follows, views, kudos, and comments and I'll see you elsewhere for future projects down the road.**


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